Bitter Divisions Exposed at Climate Talks

NYTimes:

NUSA DUA, Indonesia — Amid growing frustration with the United States in deadlocked negotiations at a United Nations conference on global warming, the European Union threatened Thursday to boycott separate talks proposed by the Bush administration in Hawaii next month.

Humberto Rosa, the chief delegate from Portugal, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said the talks to be hosted by the Bush Administration in Hawaii in January would be “meaningless” if there was no deal this week here at the conference on the resort island of Bali. Germany’s environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, told reporters here, “No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting.” He was referring to the formal name of the proposed American-sponsored talks. The goal of the Bali meeting, which is being attended by delegates from 190 countries and which is scheduled to end Friday, is to reach agreement on a “roadmap” for a future deal to reduce greenhouse gases.

The escalating bitterness between the European Union and United States came as former Vice President Al Gore told delegates in a speech that “my own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.”

Mr. Gore arrived at the conference from Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their work in helping to alert the world to the danger of global warming. He urged delegates to agree an open-ended deal here that could be enhanced after the Bush Administration leaves office and United States policy changes.

“Over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now,” Mr. Gore said to loud applause. “You must anticipate that.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/world/14climate.html?hp