VARIOUS: Global warming takes centre stage Monday as the United Nations takes up the issue before the opening of its annual General Assembly

Global warming takes centre stage Monday as the United Nations takes up the issue before the opening of its annual General Assembly. A trio of climate change meetings in the United States this week will focus attention on how Washington can deliver on its pledge to play a lead role in combating global warming. The central issue is how to curb the emission of climate-warming greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and petroleum-fueled vehicles, and whether to make the goals mandatory or "aspirational" as the White House has proposed. As the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases -- with China close behind and gaining fast -- the United States has said it wants to lead, but critics from the U.S. environmental movement and elsewhere question whether its voluntary approach will work. A "high-level" U.N. meeting in New York on Monday (September 24) is meant to send a "strong political message" from world leaders, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, although it is not a negotiation on climate change. John Coequyt, from the environmental activist group Greenpeace, said negotiators need to craft a global mandate on greenhouse emissions. "We need to see expanded participation from the developing world and we need to see global agreement that in the long run we're going to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half, in order to solve this problem." The United States is at odds with the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that requires 36 industrial nations to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012, when the protocol expires. President George W. Bush rejected the Kyoto plan, saying it unfairly burdens rich countries while exempting developing countries like China and India, and that it will cost U.S. jobs. Climate change negotiations will take place in December in Bali, when representatives will consider a way to cut emissions after the Kyoto pact expires. The deadline for figuring this out is 2009, so countries have enough time to ratify the agreement. Eighty-one heads of state or government will attend Monday's event, along with two vice presidents, five deputy prime ministers, 33 foreign ministers and 12 environment ministers, in addition to 18 other representatives, according to the United Nations. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are scheduled to attend. Bush will not attend but is scheduled to dine with Ban afterward, in advance of his address on Tuesday (September 25) to the U.N. General Assembly. Bush will speak at a two-day Washington meeting at the State Department on Thursday (September 27) and Friday (September 28), a gathering of "major economies" -- which are also the world's biggest global warming contributors -- on energy security and climate change.

ITN Source | September 24, 2007

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