Scramble to save climate treaty

The Dutch Environment Minister, Jan Pronk, has stepped in to try to save the UN climate conference in The Hague. He has tabled a compromise proposal which delegates will study far into the night. The European Union is reported to have described the paper as "disappointing and unacceptable". It represents a distinct softening of the US position, which critics had said was threatening to prevent the conference finalising the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty. French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet was quoted as saying that the proposals were "disappointing and unacceptable". Friends of the Earth criticised the Pronk paper for giving the US "a giant free gift of carbon towards its Kyoto target, a major weakening of the treaty".