{"id":13912,"date":"2007-12-13T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2007-12-13T18:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13912.html"},"modified":"2007-12-13T13:32:08","modified_gmt":"2007-12-13T18:32:08","slug":"gore-fingers-bush-admin-at-un-global-warming-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/gore-fingers-bush-admin-at-un-global-warming-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Gore fingers Bush admin. at U.N. global warming conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Nations has been meeting this week in Bali to negotiate steps industrialized nations will take to reduce emissions and combat global warming. Predictably, the Bush administration’s delegation is doing what it always does — block progress, stall for time, and undermine the process. It’s reached the point that our European allies are prepared to boycott U.S.-led climate talks next month unless the Bush administration begins to compromise in good faith.<\/p>\n

Today, Al Gore was on hand, and didn’t hesitate<\/a> to take his country’s irresponsible approach to task.<\/p>\n

“My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali,” said Gore, who flew to Bali from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change. […]<\/p>\n

Gore urged delegates to reach agreement even without the backing of the United States, saying President Bush’s successor, who will take office in January 2009, would likely be more supportive of binding cuts.<\/p>\n

“Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now,” he said. “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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, “Ignore Bush and strike a compromise now — the United States can catch up once what’s-his-name is gone.”<\/p>\n

Indeed, Gore drew a loud ovation<\/a> when he “reminded delegates that President George W. Bush has only one year and 40 days left in the White House.”
\n
\nFor it’s part, the White House says Gore has it all wrong.<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday Gore was wrong in blaming the United States for holding up progress. “I think he is incorrect,” she said. […]<\/p>\n

The United States, Japan and several other governments are refusing 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.<\/p>\n

European nations said they may boycott a U.S.-led climate meeting next month unless Washington compromises.<\/p>\n

“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 President 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.” […]<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

It also noted that that the conference was the start of negotiations for a new climate pact, not the end.<\/p>\n

“We don’t have to resolve all these issues … here in Bali,” said Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, the head of the U.S. delegation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course. What’s the rush? Why work on emissions cuts now when Bush can hand off the crisis to his successor without having done anything except make the problem worse?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations has been meeting this week in Bali to negotiate steps industrialized nations will take to reduce emissions and combat global warming. Predictably, the Bush administration’s delegation is doing what it always does — block progress, stall for time, and undermine the process. It’s reached the point that our European allies are prepared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}