Reaction to the end of the Kyoto Climate Change Summit yesterday spanned the spectrum from outright opposition by the Global Climate Coalition, speaking for US industrial interests, to a qualified welcome from environmental groups.
They were responding to a deal which sets a 5.2 per cent target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the industrialised world after 2008, with higher figures for the EU (8 per cent), the US (7 per cent) and Japan (6 per cent).
The GCC, which represents major oil, coal and motor manufacturing corporations, warned that the deal could result in three million American workers losing their jobs as well as draining up to $150 billion a year from the US economy.
Mr William O'Keefe, the lobbying group chairman, described it as a "terrible deal" which represented "unilateral economic disarmament" by the US because it would allow UN bureaucrats to dictate decisions on jobs and investment.
The GCC pledged to mobilise opposition to the Kyoto Protocol with a view to blocking its ratification by the US Senate on the basis that it failed to secure meaningful participation by developing countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But Mr Michael Marvin, director of the US Business Council for Sustainable Energy, said that even with this flaw, the agreement represented a historic first step towards dealing with climate change and should be applauded around the world.
"Americans will hear some exorbitant claims about the alleged economic consequences of implementing the protocol. But one thing we know is that the cost of inaction on climate change is much higher than the cost of action," he declared.
Mr Tony Juniper, of Friends of the Earth International, said the protocol was a start. "It's a weak deal that won't affect the global atmosphere, but we intend to build on it between now and the next conference in Buenos Aires next November."
Mr Jim Woolridge, representing environment and development organisations in Ireland, said they could "take a leaf" from opponents such as the Global Climate Coalition, which had come to Kyoto with a bad case but presented it very well.
Mr Woodridge, who was the only Irish non-governmental delegate at the summit, said it was vital that the Government did not abandon Ireland's current commitment to cap the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions at 15 per cent by the year 2010.
He also said the environmental movement in Ireland needed to reach out beyond its middle-class constituency and spell out to ordinary people "the unbelievably strong case" in favour of taking radical action on the climate change issue.
Mr Peter Doran, deputy chairman of the Green Party in Northern Ireland and joint editor of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin - the daily bible for everyone at the Kyoto Summit - said the Celtic Tiger could learn a lot from other EU countries.
The European Environment Commissioner, Ms Ritt Bjerregaard, yesterday welcomed the outcome of the summit, even though the targets for reducing emissions by industrialised countries fell far short of the EU's 15 per cent figure.
