US 'ready to lead' climate change fight: Clinton

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 9:32 PM Posted by Beijing News


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told envoys from 17 major economies meeting here Monday that the United States is ready to lead the fight against global climate change.

President Barack Obama "and his entire administration are committed to addressing this issue and we will act," Clinton told delegates from major European countries, China, India, Indonesia and other powers.

"The United States is fully engaged and ready to lead and determined to make up for lost time both at home and abroad," she told a forum Obama set up to build political momentum for the climate talks in December in Copenhagen.

"The United States is no longer absent without leave," she said alluding to widespread criticism that the preceding administration of president George W. Bush played down the threat from climate change and failed to do much about it.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel hailed the US turnaround, saying he was glad "the Americans are no longer standing aside but are participating actively in negotiations about climate protection."

"The atmosphere in the negotiations is completely different from how it used to be under the previous US administration," he said.

But he warned that the negotiations would be tough.

"I don't expect a breakthrough before the UN conference in Copenhagen in December," he said.

Carroll Muffett, campaigner for the environmental group Greenpeace, called for tougher action by Obama and the US Congress to commit the United States to reducing greenhouse gases.

"It is very encouraging to see the president really re-engaging and committing the US to be part of the answer," he told AFP. "At the same time, what the US has brought to the table remains woefully inadequate."

For Clinton, there is no dispute about the evidence behind climate change.

"We know climate change threatens lives and livelihoods. Desertification and rising sea levels generate increased competition for food, water and resources," said the chief US diplomat.

"But we also have seen the dangers that these trends pose to the stability of societies and governments. We see how this can breed conflict, unrest and forced migration," she said.

"So no issue we face today has broader long term consequences or greater potential to alter the world for future generations," she asserted.

The chief US diplomat said the United States and its fellow participants must cooperate to work on new policy and new technologies needed to resolve the global crisis.

In introducing Clinton, Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change, said: "We will be working hard because the stakes are high and time is short."

The talks in Washington, which closed to the media after Clinton's speech, are among several forums on the way to a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December aimed at sealing an international pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012.

Represented here are Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Commission, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, the United States, Denmark and the United Nations.





03 Contemporary Art by the Sea exhibition in Belgium. REUTERS/Thierry Roge

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