Mr President,

Here in this House we love to boast about our green credentials, and to criticise the USA and President Bush for their environmental vandalism. After all, we signed Kyoto and they didn't.

Let's pause for a reality check. In fact the US did sign Kyoto , but they didn't ratify. Here in Europe, we ratified, but we're not delivering. Despite the Commission spending the last ten years trying to fudge the Kyoto base-line figures, it still seems that per­haps only two member-states will actually hit their Kyoto targets.

We say that the US is "the world's biggest polluter". But only because it's the world's biggest economy. Since Kyoto has been in place, the US trend on CO2 emissions has been better than ours. I repeat. In recent years the US trend on CO2 emissions has been better than the EU's trend. The energy intensity of the US economy is similar to our own, and on current trends the US economy will be greener than Europe by 2010.

The USA has a vast biofuels programme. They're investing in green technology. Their AP6 programme engages China and India , without whom no global programme can succeed.

Mr. President, it is time that we in this House stopped our moral posturing, and started to treat our American ally with a little more courtesy and respect.