The European Union is not taking the U.S. delegation's stubborn refusal to commit to binding greenhouse gas reductions lightly. As a result, the E.U. has stated that it will boycott the upcoming U.S.-led climate talks that President Bush has repeatedly used as his proof that he is taking climate change seriously.
The talks, which are supposed to include 16 "major economies" (read: major greenhouse gas emitters), have been viewed by many as a way for the U.S., as well as a few like-minded emitters, to stonewall the Bali talks while still claiming that they consider climate change an important issue. The E.U.'s decision to boycott the event could all but eliminate its importance, effectively leaving Bush without a leg to stand on. But don't expect it to change his mind.
As mentioned in another post from today, even Al Gore is visibly frustrated at his own country. In a speech at Bali yesterday, he expressed deep disappointment in the U.S. delegation:
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.- The Times Online
But Al Gore is not alone here. 52 members of Congress, including Senators Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, and Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, have sent a letter to Bush pleading with him to support emissions-reduction goals. From the letter:
We write to express our strong disagreement with these positions and to urge you to direct the U.S. negotiating team to work together with other countries to complete a road map with a clear objective sufficient to combat global warming.... - Bloomberg
What is the U.S. delegation's explanation? Here's a quote from James Connaughton, the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality:
The main effort here in Bali is to get all of the countries to agree, in concept, that they will collectively support a long term global goal for reducing emissions. That's the first step before you can then sit down and work through the specifics of what that goal might be. - CNN
No, Mr. Connaughton, that goal should have been reached 10 years ago, when Kyoto was born. The complete lack of flexibility shown by the U.S. delegation is more than just dissapointing. It is a blatant disregard for the undeniable, constantly worsening science of climate change, and a disregard for the rest of the world.
