February 11, 2009 3:43 PM
- Text
Gore: U.S. Blocking Progress On Climate
(CBS/AP)
Al Gore said Thursday the United States is "principally responsible" for blocking progress in battling climate change at the U.N. climate conference.
Anger toward the Bush administration for resisting measures that would create mandatory targets for reductions in greenhouse gases was rife at the conference, where one official described the U.S. delegation as a "wrecking ball."
European nations are even threatening a boycott of U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
The United Nations warned that time was running out for an agreement aimed at launching negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and the talks in Bali were in danger of "falling to pieces."
Concurrent with the conference was an announcement by NASA scientists that the rate of melting of Arctic ice, both in the sea and land-bound, was proceeding at a faster pace than expected. "The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colo.
In urging delegates to take immediate action to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, Gore laid the blame for the lack of action so far squarely on the current U.S. administration.
"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change.
He asked delegates Thursday not to get angry, but to work toward a world which will soon have a new American president.
"Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now," said Gore, who flew to the Bali meeting after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway on Monday.
"One year and 40 days from today, there will be a new inauguration in the United States," he said, speaking in a conference hall and by video to delegates throughout the conference site.
"I must tell you candidly that I cannot promise that the person who is elected will have the position I expect they will have, but I can tell you I believe it is quite likely."
He noted that the U.S. Congress is moving legislation forward to impose binding emissions caps in the United States for the first time - legislation that, if passed, would likely be vetoed by Mr. Bush.
Gore told the delegates, from almost 190 nations, they have two choices here.
"You can feel anger and frustration and direct it at the United States of America, or you can make a second choice. You can decide to move forward and do all of the difficult work that needs to be done."
Gore, who helped in the final negotiation of the Kyoto pact in 1997, also called for implementing a successor agreement to Kyoto two years early, in 2010. The first implementation period of the Kyoto pact expires at the end of 2012.
"We can't afford to wait another five years," he said.
This morning, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino rejected comments by Gore who blamed the Bush administration for blocking progress, saying that the U.S. is not the only country that has concerns about setting a specific emission reduction target, reports CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer.
Nations Threaten Boycott Over U.S. Position
As U.N. talks entered their final hours, European nations on Thursday threatened to boycott a U.S.-led climate meeting next month unless Washington agrees to a deal mentioning numerical targets for deep reductions in global warming gases.
The United States, Japan, Russia and several other governments refuse to accept language in a draft document suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020, saying specific targets would limit the scope of future talks.
The European Union and others say the figures reflect the measures scientists say are needed to rein in global warming and head off predictions of rising sea levels, worsening floods and droughts, and the extinction of plant and animal species.
"No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting," said Sigmar Gabriel, top EU environment official from Germany, referring to a series of separate climate talks initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush in September.
"This is the clear position of the EU. I do not know what we should talk about if there is no target."
Brazil's Climate Change Ambassador Sergio Barbosa Serra said his government was not threatening a boycott, but would take any omission of numerical targets "into account" when it decides whether to attend the Major Economies Meeting.
Those meetings were criticized for shunning mandatory reductions in favor of each nation setting voluntary goals towards a still-to-be-defined future goal.
The White House said European threats to boycott next month's U.S.-led climate change meeting are "not constructive," reports Maer. Press Secretary Dana Perino also noted that a boycott is not the "official position" of the European Union.
Environmentalists accuse the U.S. of trying to undermine the U.N. process, which since Kyoto has focused on internationally binding targets. Many delegates here believe no such international action is possible until the Bush administration leaves the White House.
But U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said he was worried the U.S.-EU deadlock could derail the process and that a final "Bali roadmap" would contain an agreement to negotiate a new climate deal by 2009, but may not include specific targets for emission reductions.
"I'm very concerned about the pace of things," he said. "If we don't get wording on the future, then the whole house of cards falls to pieces."
The United States delegation said while it continues to reject inclusion of specific emission cut targets, it hopes eventually to reach an agreement that is "environmentally effective" and "economically sustainable."
The United States is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the only major industrial country to have rejected Kyoto, which expires in 2012. It has been on the defensive since the conference kicked off on Dec. 3.
Anger toward the Bush administration for resisting measures that would create mandatory targets for reductions in greenhouse gases was rife at the conference, where one official described the U.S. delegation as a "wrecking ball."
European nations are even threatening a boycott of U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
The United Nations warned that time was running out for an agreement aimed at launching negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and the talks in Bali were in danger of "falling to pieces."
Concurrent with the conference was an announcement by NASA scientists that the rate of melting of Arctic ice, both in the sea and land-bound, was proceeding at a faster pace than expected. "The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colo.
In urging delegates to take immediate action to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, Gore laid the blame for the lack of action so far squarely on the current U.S. administration.
"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change.
He asked delegates Thursday not to get angry, but to work toward a world which will soon have a new American president.
"Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now," said Gore, who flew to the Bali meeting after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway on Monday.
"One year and 40 days from today, there will be a new inauguration in the United States," he said, speaking in a conference hall and by video to delegates throughout the conference site.
"I must tell you candidly that I cannot promise that the person who is elected will have the position I expect they will have, but I can tell you I believe it is quite likely."
He noted that the U.S. Congress is moving legislation forward to impose binding emissions caps in the United States for the first time - legislation that, if passed, would likely be vetoed by Mr. Bush.
Gore told the delegates, from almost 190 nations, they have two choices here.
"You can feel anger and frustration and direct it at the United States of America, or you can make a second choice. You can decide to move forward and do all of the difficult work that needs to be done."
Gore, who helped in the final negotiation of the Kyoto pact in 1997, also called for implementing a successor agreement to Kyoto two years early, in 2010. The first implementation period of the Kyoto pact expires at the end of 2012.
"We can't afford to wait another five years," he said.
This morning, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino rejected comments by Gore who blamed the Bush administration for blocking progress, saying that the U.S. is not the only country that has concerns about setting a specific emission reduction target, reports CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer.
Nations Threaten Boycott Over U.S. Position
As U.N. talks entered their final hours, European nations on Thursday threatened to boycott a U.S.-led climate meeting next month unless Washington agrees to a deal mentioning numerical targets for deep reductions in global warming gases.
The United States, Japan, Russia and several other governments refuse to accept language in a draft document suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020, saying specific targets would limit the scope of future talks.
The European Union and others say the figures reflect the measures scientists say are needed to rein in global warming and head off predictions of rising sea levels, worsening floods and droughts, and the extinction of plant and animal species.
"No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting," said Sigmar Gabriel, top EU environment official from Germany, referring to a series of separate climate talks initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush in September.
"This is the clear position of the EU. I do not know what we should talk about if there is no target."
Brazil's Climate Change Ambassador Sergio Barbosa Serra said his government was not threatening a boycott, but would take any omission of numerical targets "into account" when it decides whether to attend the Major Economies Meeting.
The U.S. invited 16 other major economies to that Washington meeting, including European countries, Japan, China and India, to discuss a program of what it expects would be nationally determined, voluntary cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions.
Those meetings were criticized for shunning mandatory reductions in favor of each nation setting voluntary goals towards a still-to-be-defined future goal.
The White House said European threats to boycott next month's U.S.-led climate change meeting are "not constructive," reports Maer. Press Secretary Dana Perino also noted that a boycott is not the "official position" of the European Union.
Environmentalists accuse the U.S. of trying to undermine the U.N. process, which since Kyoto has focused on internationally binding targets. Many delegates here believe no such international action is possible until the Bush administration leaves the White House.
But U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said he was worried the U.S.-EU deadlock could derail the process and that a final "Bali roadmap" would contain an agreement to negotiate a new climate deal by 2009, but may not include specific targets for emission reductions.
"I'm very concerned about the pace of things," he said. "If we don't get wording on the future, then the whole house of cards falls to pieces."
The United States delegation said while it continues to reject inclusion of specific emission cut targets, it hopes eventually to reach an agreement that is "environmentally effective" and "economically sustainable."
The United States is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the only major industrial country to have rejected Kyoto, which expires in 2012. It has been on the defensive since the conference kicked off on Dec. 3.
- 1
- 2
- Next Page »
Popular Now in SciTech
- Retro Duo will play your old Nintendo games
- Apple iPad 3 rumors: thicker, sharper, coming soon
- Obama's 2012 campaign playlist now on Spotify
- Anonymous breaks into Assad's server
- FBI releases Steve Jobs background report
- Apple faces $1.6 billion iPad trademark lawsuit
- Hackers release Symantec pcAnywhere source code
- Ethical iPhone 5 petitions head to Apple stores
- Scientists say online dating doesn't work
- Apple iPad 3 rumors resurface, sources say March release
- Apple iPhone 5 rumors, reports say June release
- Kids react to seeing iPhone for first time
- Facebook graffiti artist David Choe, from homeless to millions
- Pinterest secretly swaps links for profit
- Shocking Stats on Texting While Driving
- Facebook RIP pages defaced by British man
- Apple supplier Foxconn hit by hackers
Latest CBS News Headlines
on Facebook
on CBS News
- Sinking
- Rep. Bachus faces insider-trading investigation
- Singapore DBS bank profit jumps 7.8 percent in 4Q
- Owner of Sierra mine surrenders to face charges
on Facebook
- Adele opens up about vocal cord surgery
- Tenn. father charged with murdering couple who"unfriended" daughter on Facebook
- Mo. teen gets life in prison for murder of 9-year-old girl
on CBS News
