Bush Announces Plans For Climate Summit

President Bush invited representatives of major industrialized and developing countries to a climate change summit in September to discuss how to set a long-term strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"In recent years, science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it," Mr. Bush said in his invitation letter Friday.

Under international pressure to take tough action against global warming, Mr. Bush last May had called for a meeting of nations to talk about how to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and promote energy efficiency without hampering economic growth.

He made the initial announcement at the Group of Eight summit in Germany, and now is sending out invitations for a meeting Sept. 27-28 that will be hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Bush wants to bring India, China and other fast-growing countries to the negotiating table so they are part of the solution, not the problem.

The summit will address "life after" the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The Kyoto agreement, adopted in 1997, aims to limit the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from power plants and factories in industrialized countries. The United States is not a party to the agreement and developing countries like China and India are exempt from its obligations.

Mr. Bush, who plans to address the conference, sent invitations to the European Union, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, Canada, India, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and the United Nations.

In his invitation, Mr. Bush said representatives would talk about ways the major world economies would — by the end of 2008 — agree upon a post-2012 framework that could include a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He said they also would talk about working with the private sector to promote clean energy technologies.