Bush to hold own climate change meeting of world's top polluters

Earthtimes.org - Sept 27, 2007

NEW YORK - President George W Bush is all set to hold his own climate change meeting in Washington on Friday even as he wrapped a fresh round of meetings at the United Nations.

Delegates of 16 of the top polluting nations have gathered in the US for the meeting, which has been called a show of leadership on climate change by Bush. The meeting will also be attended by representatives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as the European Union.

The White House said in a statement that the main aim of the meet was to set global goals as well as "nationally defined mid-term goals and strategies, and sector-based approaches for improving energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

The UN meet included 150 countries who were looking for a way to extend the Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in 2012. Bush has rejected this accord, but formidable names like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former vice president Al Gore were present at the UN meeting.

Explaining the purpose of the new meet, Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality said, "It's our philosophy that each nation has the sovereign capacity to decide for itself what its own portfolio of policies should be."

However critics feel that the meeting is designed to simply show that Bush is working on environmental issues when he is actually not.