Forget Iraq, ABM, gays, lies, and abortions. This is the main reason why I dispise the Bush administration. (From Forex)

quote:

Informal climate deal is reached, but US, Saudis absent - MONTREAL (AFX) - Negotiators at the UN climate meeting here reached an informal agreement early today on launching the next phase of talks on deepening cuts in greenhouse-gas pollution, but the deal was reached in the absence of the United States and Saudi Arabia, conference sources said. The proposal is couched in the vaguest terms in the hope of coaxing the US and big developing countries on board, but it was still uncertain whether the text would be approved, they stressed. A draft of the document describes climate change as "a serious challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe". It calls for "a dialogue on long-term cooperative action" under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the offshoot of the 1992 Rio Summit. It makes no specific reference to the key UNFCCC treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, which spells out action on tackling greenhouse-gas pollution. The "dialogue (would be engaged) without prejudice to any future negotiations, commitments, process, framework or mandate under the UNFCCC," the document stresses. Agreement on the key text was reached by a core group of negotiators pre-dawn Friday, in the absence of the US and Saudi Arabia. It is still unknown whether those two countries would accept the document when the text was put to the conference later today, the sources said. The biggest question mark surrounded the position of the US, which expressed deep hostility to any talks on further emissions cuts at the start of the three-day ministerial-level UNFCCC meeting here. Adding to the potential for US objections, former US president Bill Clinton, who signed Kyoto for the US and is a hero to some green groups, was to attend the conference in a side event hosted by the City of Montreal. And the Canadian press reported Friday that the US delegation was livid with a jab directed at Washington on Wednesday by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, who called on the US to hear the "global conscience" on global warming. President George W. Bush's administration walked out of the UN's Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse-gas pollution in 2001. It said the cost of meeting the treaty's legally binding caps on these emissions was too costly for its economy. Kyoto's present commitment period runs out in 2012, but its outcome will at best make only a tiny advance against what is a gigantic problem. There is universal recognition that future efforts against man-made global warming are doomed unless the world's top carbon polluter is included in the next commitment round. Almost as important is to get highly populous, fast-growing developing countries, such as China -- the world's number two polluter -- and India, in a closer cooperation. Under the present Kyoto format, only industrialised countries that have ratified the accord have to make specific emissions cuts in greenhouse gases. These nations are most to blame for global warming because they were the first to use oil, gas and coal to power their economic rise. Scientists say that the post-2012 "son of Kyoto" must deliver swingeing cuts in carbon emissions compared to the present promises, otherwise the Earth may suffer catastrophic damage to its climate system. Many say annual pollution levels should be halved over the next half-century -- a tall order given that emission levels today are racing ever higher and fossil fuels are enthroned in the world's energy mix. Moving away from fossils carries an economic price because of the need to improve fuel efficiency and switch to technology that may be cleaner but is also more expensive and largely untested. The ministerial level meeting culminated a 12-day gathering that has drawn 8,700 participants.

Although the "agreement" is extremely vague, I think that it's shameful of the US to walk out on it - refusing even to continue to "have a dialogue". World's richest nation.

At least now they agreed to have talks about it, guess it's a start...

Well, actually that's the problem: The US won't even promise to talk about it.

Well, they did yestruday:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4515898.stm

quote:

Last-minute climate deals reached Ministers at the climate change conference in Montreal have made a series of breakthroughs in plans to combat global warming. On the conference's last day, Kyoto Protocol signatories agreed to extend the treaty on emissions reductions beyond its 2012 deadline. And a broader group of countries including the US agreed to non-binding talks on long-term measures. The US had refused to accept any deal leading to commitments to cuts. Earlier, former President Bill Clinton said the US approach was "flat wrong". After Mr Clinton's remarks - which were warmly received - the official US team appeared to shift its position. 'Map for the future' The BBC's Tim Hirsch in Montreal says the deal was finally agreed in a mood of some euphoria after a last-minute procedural objection by the Russians held up the talks for several hours. Formal talks can now begin over the precise targets which will be set when the first phase of the Kyoto agreement expires in 2012. Our correspondent says that, crucially, it sets the scene for discussing how large developing countries like India and China could be brought into the system of limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Canadian Environment Minister Stephane Dion, who is hosting the conference, described the agreement as "a map for the future, the Montreal Action Plan, the MAP". Last week delegates finalised a rule book for Kyoto, formally making it fully operational after years of negotiation and ratification. The 1997 treaty commits industrialised countries to cut their combined carbon emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-12. 'Meet and surpass' The US appears to have been stung by negative coverage in the US media after it walked out in protest at Canadian attempts to get it to accept mandatory targets, as well as by Mr Clinton's strong comments , our correspondent says. Mr Clinton attacked a central plank of the Bush administration's resistance to targets for cutting emissions - that it would harm the US economy. If the US "had a serious, disciplined effort to apply on a large scale existing clean energy and energy conservation technologies... we could meet and surpass the Kyoto targets easily in a way that would strengthen, not weaken, our economies," he said. Global warming and melting ice, he suggested, could lead to a future climate conference in Canada being held on "a raft somewhere". The US has still not budged on its opposition to the Kyoto treaty, and faced heavy criticism for its stance. Jennifer Morgan, climate-change expert for environmental group WWF, said US negotiator Harlan Watson's decision to leave the talks overnight showed "just how willing the US administration is to walk away from a healthy planet and its responsibilities". The US rejected the criticism. "If you want to talk about global consciousness, I'd say there's one country that is focused on action... dialogue... co-operation and... helping the developing world, and that's the United States," said state department spokesman Adam Ereli in Washington. Despite the row, environmentalists said the conference had been in most respects a success, reaching agreements on how to quantify gas emissions and how to penalise nations for failing to meet Kyoto targets.