US cannot meet Kyoto emissions targets

America cannot meet its Kyoto treaty target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a senior United States official admitted yesterday.

America cannot meet its Kyoto treaty target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a senior United States official admitted yesterday.

The target, which would mean cutting 30 per cent of the US's emissions of carbon dioxide and other industrial gases by 2010, is too big, said Frank Loy, the State Department's under-secretary for global affairs. Instead, it will need to buy huge amounts of "emissions credits" from other countries. No limit should be set on these, said Mr Loy, chief US negotiator for the Kyoto follow-up conference to be held in the Hague in November.

*A study by Nasa says the warming climate is eroding about 50 billion tons of water a year from the Greenland ice sheet, adding to a 9in global sea level rise over the last century.