Bush's chief adviser on climate change, Jim Connaughton, defended the U.S. position.
"It was a speech directed at domestic audiences," he said. Bush's aides said the president's plan was aimed at heading off a "train wreck" of varying emission legislation in Congress.
Connaughton confirmed that the Americans and their negotiating partners remain divided over how to figure the steps needed to rein in emissions.
The U.S., he said, will calculate its emissions goals based on the most modest U.N. scientific projections of overall global warming in the coming decades. The European Union is basing its goals -- reducing emissions by 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2050 -- on more dire projections.
A U.N. climate panel of scientists released reports last year warning of fast-rising seas, extensive droughts and flooding, severe heat waves and other dire effects from global warming. Its estimates ranged from a 3.6-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100 to an 11-degree jump.
While long critical of Bush's approach to global warming, the EU's member states have had varied success in meeting their commitments under Kyoto. But the bloc has been a key backer of the protocol and is pushing for more dramatic global cuts in the Kyoto follow-up negotiation process launched in December.
Washington has been sponsoring talks in parallel to the broader negotiations. The meeting in Paris involves countries that produce about 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, including the U.S., China and India. Previous sessions were in New York in September and in Honolulu in January.
"It was a speech directed at domestic audiences," he said. Bush's aides said the president's plan was aimed at heading off a "train wreck" of varying emission legislation in Congress.
Connaughton confirmed that the Americans and their negotiating partners remain divided over how to figure the steps needed to rein in emissions.
The U.S., he said, will calculate its emissions goals based on the most modest U.N. scientific projections of overall global warming in the coming decades. The European Union is basing its goals -- reducing emissions by 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2050 -- on more dire projections.
A U.N. climate panel of scientists released reports last year warning of fast-rising seas, extensive droughts and flooding, severe heat waves and other dire effects from global warming. Its estimates ranged from a 3.6-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100 to an 11-degree jump.
While long critical of Bush's approach to global warming, the EU's member states have had varied success in meeting their commitments under Kyoto. But the bloc has been a key backer of the protocol and is pushing for more dramatic global cuts in the Kyoto follow-up negotiation process launched in December.
Washington has been sponsoring talks in parallel to the broader negotiations. The meeting in Paris involves countries that produce about 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, including the U.S., China and India. Previous sessions were in New York in September and in Honolulu in January.
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