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1st UN Summit on Climate Change; Bush Convenes Own Summit Later This Week

-- Chris -- 09/24/2007

The UN held it’s first official summit on climate change in New York today. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pulled few punches in his surmission of the urgent need for immediate action. When President Bush backed out of the Kyoto Treaty shortly after his bags were unpacked in the White House, it was simply the tip of an iceberg that has proved the unmovable obstacle to taking action on climate change: That is, the notion that environmental responsibility means bad news for the economy. The Secretary-General addressed this notion head-on, saying "Inaction now will prove the costliest action of all in the long term".

President Bush opted not to attend the assembly of "presidents and premiers," but will hold his own two-day climate meeting, limited to 16 "major emitter" countries later this week. It’s the first in a series of U.S.-sponsored climate gatherings.

It’s hard to understand why the Bush Administration would miss such a golden opportunity to help restore American leadership in the international community by deciding not to take part in this landmark summit. We’ll look forward to seeing what comes out of the Bush summit later this week, but all the while preoccupied by the administrations determination to fail seeing climate change as a problem that requires a global solution.

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by Andrew Snow

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by Andrew Snow

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