Pacific Rim Climate Deal is No Laughing Matter for Green Activists

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called it 'a new international consensus'. Green groups called it a 'failure' without binding targets. The first day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit ended yesterday in Sydney with 21 Pacific Rim leaders agreeing to curb global warming by improving energy use and expanding forests, laying out a plan they said would influence future climate change talks. But that green campaigners immediately dismissed as too timid.

'The Sydney declaration is just a Sydney distraction from real action on climate change,' said Catherine Fitzpatrick of Greenpeace. 'If the statement is the platform for action on climate change, then the world is in trouble.'

US President George Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, China's Hu Jintao and leaders of other Asia-Pacific economies adopted the program at the annual summit after officials struck a deal over voluntary targets. Bush then left - a day early - without explanation.

The main goals of the declaration are energy efficiency and the preservation of forests. Unlike the UN-backed Kyoto Protocol, it does not set binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions. Yet in bringing together countries on a contentious issue, the programme may carry weight in upcoming talks in Washington, New York and Indonesia for new post-Kyoto blueprint.

A mass demonstration that activists had called for fizzled out in the presence of a show of force by police.