US at Odds With World Over Climate Change

Europeans call Bush's emissions proposal 'a total charade'
By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 29, 2007 7:43 AM CDT
US at Odds With World Over Climate Change
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, right, speaks with Deputy National Security Advisor Dan Price at the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)   (Associated Press)

International diplomats in Washington for a conference on climate change lashed out yesterday after President Bush proposed non-binding global emissions standards. Even big polluters China and India found Bush's plan unfeasible, instead favoring mandatory measures. A European diplomat had "never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader," reports the Guardian.

Britain's special envoy on climate said that the US had "isolated" itself on the issue and noted that it was not Bush but Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's putting policies in place in California,  who represented the "most inspiring example of leadership this week."  Critics are calling Bush's emphasis on technology and glossing-over of qualitative goals a "total charade." (More climate change stories.)

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