Climate Talks Success, Claim Organizers - US Continues To Sit On Its Ass

[hatrack]

Climate talks between the world's top 20 polluters have ended with an unusual level of agreement on the urgent need to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. But delegates at the Mexico talks also stressed the massive gap between the politics and science of climate change.

Several said they had never known such a positive atmosphere. Nobody doubted the reality of climate science anymore. The UK claimed the talks a success, saying they brought together ministers from developed and developing nations. Politicians from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Indonesia and other growing nations sat alongside G8 members to hear presentations on climate science, economics, technology, business and policy.

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The Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky, told the BBC that the US was now acting urgently to tackle greenhouse gases - then later admitted that the country's emissions would continue to rise. Another US delegate agreed that the world would face inevitable sea level rise because of climate change. But when informally asked if the US opposition to mandatory CO2 cuts had changed in any way in response to a surge in concern over recent science of climate change, economically replied "no".

There have been rumours in the US media that the Department of Energy has been in talks with business about mandatory CO2 caps. But a source here in Monterrey said the White House Council on Environmental Quality (a hard-line group of advisers with close links to the US oil industry) have ruled that out.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5408798.stm

[subterranean]

1. The more we delay, the more we'll pay. n/t