You are the official delegation from the German government and you are also hosting this conference. You want a decision to be made because it will look good for you as the hosts. There was no decision made at the conference in the Netherlands last autumn which looks bad when it is reported in the media.

You are one of very few countries which is doing well and is on target to achieve your cut in greenhouse gas emissions which you promised at Kyoto. Along with the rest of the European Union, you think that the conference should agree to make the Kyoto Protocol law, with or without the agreement of the US.

You have recently passed a law in Germany called the Renewable Energy Law about investing in renewable energy for German power stations. Amongst the German people who voted for you there are a lot of people who are very concerned about global warming. Many of your citizens have written to you to ask you to ensure that the Kyoto Protocol is made law at this conference, so you feel a special responsibility to make this happen.

International Climate Change Conference Bonn, Germany July 21st 2001
Briefing papers: United Kingdom

The UK is part of the European Union, which has already agreed to try its hardest to get the Kyoto targets made into law so that they are achieved. You are one of the few countries likely to reach the targets by 2012. You will probably reach them early. However, you are aware that environmental lobbying groups like Friends of the Earth say that even though you will reach these targets, they are still not really good enough to save the climate. You have said in the past that you believe there is a need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries by up to 90%.

When your party recently stood for a general election, you promised the public in your manifesto that you would set new targets to cut emissions by 20% by the year 2010. You have proposed that 10% of electricity generated in the UK should be from renewable sources by 2010.

However, the UK is still only 1% of the world's population and producing 2.3% of the world¹s carbon dioxide emissions.

There are a lot of people in your country, such as truck drivers, who have been demanding cheaper petrol for a long time. Oil companies like BP and Shell can also be very persuasive. However, on the whole, your aim at this conference is to get everyone to agree to fulfil their Kyoto targets.