Senator Kerry held
a telephone press conference on December 11 and joined with Rep. Ed Markey in
another call-in conference on December 12 to discuss his recent trip to Bali and the talks he had with representatives from various delegations including France, Japan, Indonesia and China. During the December 11 call, Senator Kerry was specifically asked about the reaction of the Chinese delegates to the process and if the Chinese are really interested in pursuing emission reductions in order to deal with the global warming crisis. He replied that the Chinese delegates had told him:
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UPDATE: Adding insult to injury, this morning the Bush Administration and its lock-step allies in Congress successfully filibustered the revised version of the same energy bill that they blocked last week, forcing legislative delays that prevented all the other Democratic leaders except Senator Kerry from attending the Bali conference in person: WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. John Kerry made the following statement today, after Republicans blocked a cloture vote on the energy bill. Kerry was the only member of Congress to attend the International Climate Conference in Bali this week.
“While the world’s leaders gathered in Bali to combat climate change, the Senate’s Roadblock Republicans didn’t have enough backbone to stand up to big oil and pass an energy bill that will help fight climate change rather than make it worse,” said Kerry.
“Republicans today made it clear they’d rather protect excessive tax giveaways for big oil than protect America from climate change or break our dependence on foreign oil. This vote today was a disgrace.”
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The press conference echoed interviews with the world press that the Senator gave over the last 2 days. The UK newspaper,
The Guardian said Kerry, “told the Bali event that a Democratic successor to George Bush in 2009 would bring the US fully on board. ‘Every single Democratic candidate for president has embraced mandatory caps … and expressed their willingness to immediately be part of the Kyoto discussions and try to find a successor agreement to Kyoto,’ he said.”
The European Parliament Vice-President and delegation chair Alejo Vidal-Quadra also met with Sen. Kerry in Bali. Vidal-Quadra sounded encouraged by the news that the US Congress is looking beyond the roadblocks put up by the current Republican Administration to change. As China’s
Xinhau news service had it:
On the heels of the delegation’s earlier meeting with U.S. Senator John Kerry, Vidal-Quadras noted that the former presidential candidate’s remarks were “extremely encouraging”.
“Although we cannot expect much movement on climate change from the current U.S. administration, the attitude on climate change in America — among the public, but also in Congress and at state level — is evolving in a very positive direction. By next year, I hope, the U.S. and Europe can reach a transatlantic consensus on binding climate change targets for the post-2012 framework,” said the EU official.
John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts in the United States, came to Bali Monday representing Congressional leaders. He called on the Bali conference to result in a “strong mandate based on science.”
“We believe that there is a significant transformational effort now taking place in the U.S.. The U.S. is going to lead.” New legislation under consideration in the Senate, he said, would implement a cap and trade system that would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions of 65-70 percent by 2050.
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