http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=8347

Major automakers have agreed to trim emissions of greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

John Efford, the minister for natural resources in Canada 's minority Liberal Party government, disclosed the agreement last week during a Parliamentary question and answer period. The agreement should be signed very soon, according to Efford, who had conducted the negotiations.

General Motors, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler confirmed they had reached an agreement but neither side offered many details.

Canadian officials, however, said the voluntary nature of the deal would encourage the Big Three to build more fuel-efficient vehicles for North America and make them more competitive with the Asian producers, who have traditionally offered more efficient vehicles.

Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's fight against global warming, described the automakers' agreement with the Canadian government as historic.

"This agreement is a breakthrough," Becker said. "Today automobile manufacturers reached an historic agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 million tons by 2010. In meeting these greenhouse base limits, these vehicles will achieve approximately a 25-percent increase in fuel efficiency," Becker said.

Becker said the improvement will be made by using existing cost-effective technologies - like more efficient engines, smarter transmissions, and better aerodynamics - to make all their vehicles go further on a gallon of gas. "With this agreement, the automakers unilaterally disarm from their longstanding position that they cannot make clean cars," Becker said.

The Toronto Globe and Mail quoted sources close to the talks as saying the carmakers would cut emissions by developing and deploying new fuel-efficient technologies and improving air conditioning systems.

The agreement is very similar to Clean Car Law adopted by the legislature in California , which both domestic and import automakers have now gone into Federal Court to try and block. The automakers claim the California law regulates fuel economy, not emissions, and only the federal government can set fuel-economy standards.

Becker said the agreement in Canada is a breakthrough because it will cut global warming emissions in Canada and set the stage for similar reductions in the United States . "With the addition of Canada, one-third of the North American auto market will have to meet California 's tougher emission rules. The automakers will find it financially impossible to make one set of cars for eight states and Canada and a dirty set for the rest," Becker said.

Two factors may have played a role in the automakers' decision to accept the voluntary pact. Canadian consumers already buy smaller vehicles than Americans and are more interested in fuel economy than American motorists. In addition, Canada, unlike the United States, has signed the Kyoto Protocol, which commits the Ottawa government to trimming the output of greenhouse gases by six percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

Canada's overall emissions are, in fact, about 20 percent above 1990 levels and government officials say the country has no chance of meeting its Kyoto goals.

"It's very good for the environment and very good for the economy... They (the firms) have a commitment to deliver and they will," Efford told reporters in Ottawa.

Critics of the effort to curb global warming have argued that not only is global warming not a proven threat, but it also threatens to undermine economic growth in the industrialized world.