The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, was showing no sign of softening his stance on Kyoto ahead of his meeting with President Bush yesterday.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times he said the US had a moral imperative to meet carbon dioxide emission standards to protect the environment for future generations.
"It is important that the US accept its responsibility for the world climate . . . If anyone believes it is possible to trivialise the dangers involved with the climate question, then that is a very different position to ours," said Mr Schroder.
German officials said Mr Schroder would ask Mr Bush directly to take responsibility for the 25 per cent of greenhouse gases the US produces, which scientists say are responsible for global warming.
Even before he left Germany it was clear that US plans to move from the position agreed in Japan in 1997 would be top of his agenda with President Bush. "I will tell him that Kyoto cannot be broken," he shouted at a state election rally in Stuttgart last week.
That the Chancellor brought up environmental issues at a local election rally, and to such a positive response, shows how central environmental issues are to German politics.
The Agriculture and Environment Ministers are both members of the Green Party and recent BSE and foot-and-mouth scares have seen a huge shift among German consumers to bio-produced food.
Two years of sharing power with the Green Party have given Mr Schroder a sure touch on environmental issues. He will have a chance to demonstrate his skills this summer in Bonn at the follow-up to the unsuccessful environmental conference in The Hague.
