September Climate Change Conference in Washington

September Climate Change Conference in Washington



Aug. 2007  - President George W. Bush has 
invited leaders of the world's "major economies" to a conference on 
climate change September 27 and 28 in Washington. In his letter of 
invitation to 15 national governments plus the European Union and the 
United Nations, the president said the conference will place "special 
emphasis" on technology. 
President Bush said he will address the conference, which will consider 
how to deal with global climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires at 
the end of 2012. 

"At this meeting, we would seek agreement on the process by which the 
major economies would, by the end of 2008, agree upon a post-2012 
framework that could include a long-term global goal, nationally defined 
mid-term goals and strategies, and sector-based approaches for improving 
energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Bush wrote.
"We expect to place special emphasis on how major economies can, in close 
cooperation with the private sector, accelerate the development and 
deployment of clean technologies, a critical component of an effective 
global approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions," he wrote. 
The President Bush has long favored the technology rather than binding 
emissions limits as the best way to address climate change. 
The president's preferences run to nuclear power, clean coal, ethanol and 
other biofuels. The White House said in February that including the 2008 
budget request the Bush administration "will have spent $15 billion since 
2001 to develop cleaner, cheaper, more efficient, and more reliable energy 
sources." By contrast, the war in Iraq has cost more than $500 billion to 
date.

The Bush conference, where the United States will set the agenda, comes 
three days after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosts an international 
high-level climate conference just prior to the general debate of the 
incoming General Assembly. 
Ban will seek to advance progress towards negotiations on a new global 
agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions to follow the Kyoto Protocol, 
but Ban says he will not seek to engage governments in negotiations. 
Formal negotiations will begin at the annual UN climate conference that 
will be held this year in Bali, Indonesia in December. 
White House Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel said that the Bush 
administration's conference is intended to support, not conflict with, the 
United Nations' work on climate change. 
"We feel that this effort is intended to aid the UN process that is 
ongoing," Stanzel said Friday, "We're pleased to have the support of the 
secretary-general and the head of the UNFCCC. We expect the results in 
2008 from these major economies to contribute to the global agreement 
under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2009. So we think 
it can enhance that process." 

Bush has designated Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to host the 
conference, which he told invitees is the first of a series of meetings 
throughout 2008 "to further refine our plans and accelerate our progress 
on this important challenge." 
James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental 
Quality, will serve as the president's personal representative, and the 
U.S. delegation will consist of senior officials responsible for economic, 
energy, and climate policy, Bush said. 
Invited governments include - Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, 
Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, 
South Korea, and the United Kingdom, plus the European Union and the 
United Nations. 
Some environmentalists say that the Bush climate conference is an effort 
to deflect international pressure for the United States to accept 
mandatory greenhouse emissions gas limits, something the president still 
refuses to do. 
In response, Stanzel said, "We have always said that we think that this 
issue should be addressed with developing nations, with the countries that 
are involved today, that the President invited to this conference." 

"We think it's an opportunity for those nations and those countries to 
come together to talk about what we can do in the post-2012 environment to 
address greenhouse gas emissions; what we can do to advance new 
technologies to help those developing nations reduce their emissions and 
help us all have a cleaner environment with a healthy economy." 
On May 31, 2007 when Bush first announced his intention to host a climate 
change conference, UNFCCC chief Yvo de Boer said Connaughton had 
personally promised him that the president's climate meeting would feed 
into the United Nations process. 
At the G8 meeting in Germany in June, Bush agreed with the other G8 
leaders for the first time to establish common goals for the reduction of 
greenhouse gases as part of the United Nations process. 
Now the world's number two emitter of greenhouse gases, after China, the 
United States has refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which 
mandates cuts in the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. 
President Bush has cited the fact that the protocol does not apply to 
developing nations such as China and India as a major reason for not 
backing the protocol, which the United States signed during the Clinton 
administration. 

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