Calling for Action: Gore, Arnold Warm Things Up at the Global Climate Summit

"Arnie" a Republican and "Al," a Democrat, teemed up to call on the world to make climate action a priority—adding a bit of uhmpf to the normally dry proceedings of a U.N. summit.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former VP Al Gore made time for the eight hours of high-level speechmaking on what to do about global warming. President Bush was notably absence from the proceedings, but did later join a small, private U.N. dinner with key players on climate. Bush rejects the idea of international treaties aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

But Schwarzenegger, who has already taken a stand on state level, disagrees. He has already signed legislation mandating emissions caps and reductions in California.

"One responsibility we all have is action. Action, action, action," said the former Terminator star, which won warm applause from the attending presidents and premiers of the planet.

Gore, who is a bit of a star himself since making the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", cited a lengthening list of various impacts that global warming has had on the planet from the shrinking Arctic ice cap to vanishing lakes in Africa.

"The need to act is now," Gore told more than 80 world leaders. "We need a mandate at Bali."

An annual U.N. climate treaty conference is scheduled for December in Bali, Indonesia. Europeans and others hope to initiate talks for an emissions-reduction agreement that will follow the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

The 175-nation Kyoto pact, rejected by the U.S. government, requires 36 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by power plants, industrial, agricultural and transportation sources. The 1997 agreement set a relatively small goal of reductions averaging 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Those who support emissions capping says a revolution is needed at Bali to ensure an uninterrupted transition from the Kyoto deal to a new, deeper-cutting agenda, something that would press the US into action. The US has long been the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Bush objects to any measurable mandates, as he believes it would damage the U.S. economy. But when U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was asked by reporters about Bush's position during the informal dinner discussions, he reported that "he made it quite clear that what he's going to do is help the United Nations' effort." Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also quoted Bush as saying that he [Bush] was ready to be more flexible on climate.

But Japan, the European nations and others jointly stressed that all of the world - including the United States - must work together to make real changes and accept binding emissions targets. However, that is something that Bush has said he is very unlikely to do.

To try to spur global negotiations, the European Union, which must already reduce emissions by 8 percent under Kyoto, has agreed unilaterally to go much further and reduce emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020.

Speaking for the EU, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the gathering that "all the developed countries and the largest emitters" must commit to a 50 percent reduction by 2050. In a comment clearly meant for Washington, he also said the U.N. negotiations are the only "legitimate framework," a point stressed repeatedly by Ban Ki-moon as well.

Posted by Rebecca Sato

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Links:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1664669,00.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/23/ap/world/main3289334.shtml
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/U/UN_CLIMATE_SUMMIT?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT