Clinton faults Bush policy on climate change

The Hindu ^ | David Adam

[indcons]

White House stung by criticism of its stance on Kyoto agreement

Montreal: The White House was forced into a U-turn on climate change on Saturday after appearing to misjudge critically the international and domestic mood on its efforts to tackle global warming.

After American delegates walked out of the United Nations climate change conference in Montreal over the wording of a draft statement calling for international co-operation on the issue, they signed a revised version after making only "trivial" changes.

One senior British official said the U.S. negotiators shifted their position on the joint statement because the Bush administration was stung by criticism of its stance in the U.S. press. "Washington is really feeling the heat on this," the official said.

The chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson walked out of talks on Friday after complaining that draft text proposals amounted to a call for negotiations which President George W. Bush opposes.

The U.S. delegation submitted its revised version of the statement text early on Saturday, but made only superficial changes, said European negotiators.

The change came after a well-received conference speech from former President Bill Clinton, in which he said that Mr. Bush's main reason for not joining Kyoto — that it would damage the U.S. economy — was "flat wrong".

Mr. Clinton said if the U.S. "had a serious effort to apply clean energy and energy conservation technologies... we could meet and surpass the Kyoto targets in a way that would strengthen our economies". Global warming could lead to a future climate conference being held on "a raft somewhere". —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

[maxwellp]

Clinton is worried about global warming. I'm worried about the War on Terror.

[eeriegeno]

Before we side with either Bush or Clinton, we have to examine which one is more believable. Clinton was considered the best liar, even during his tenure by his own party, and Bush is considered a liar mostly by the opposition party. To my knowledge, no rape allegation has been leveled against GW Bush. And, if one was, I suspect that he would have addressed that accusation in short order. Mr Clinton has not and IMHO is not a believable person........

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Clinton is worried about global warming. I'm worried about the War on Terror.

But haven't you heard? The effect of global warming COULD BE worse than terrorism </SARCASM>