Times OnLine: Al Gore lambasts US climate obstructions - by Nico Hines
Al Gore lambasts US climate obstructions - by Nico Hines
“I am not an official and I am not bound by diplomatic niceties. So I am going to speak an inconvenient truth: my own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali,” Gore said, to the applause of delegates. Mr Gore, fresh from receiving the Nobel peace prize jointly with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said delegates must “find the grace to navigate around this enormous obstacle, the elephant in the room that I have been undiplomatic enough to name.”
As the UN talks entered their final hours, the European Union threatened to boycott a US-led climate meeting next month unless Washington agrees to a deal mentioning numerical targets for deep reductions in global warming gases. “No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting,” said Sigmar Gabriel, the EU’s top environment official. “This is the clear position of the EU. I do not know what we should talk about if there is no target.” The EU proposed a draft document suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020.Note EU-Digest: The present US Administration wants to set the agenda on the global warming issue - unfortunately there is no more time for cosmetic discussions, the rest of the world must move forward with our without the US.
Labels: Al Gore, Bali Climate Talks, EU, US
