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Climate conference no U.N. rival, Bush insists

By Jon Ward
September 27, 2007

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, The Washington Times today incorrectly stated the position of Kit Batten, director of energy and environmental policy at the Center for American Progress. Ms. Batten said she was afraid that U.S. conferences on global warming would "pull away a lot of large emitting nations that have committed to the Kyoto process."

The Bush administration today opens a two-day, 17-nation conference on global warming that, despite reports to the contrary from the White House, is seen by some as a rival to the United Nations' set of talks on the issue.

President Bush will speak tomorrow to what the White House calls the "major economies meeting," hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the State Department.

Miss Rice, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Yvo de Boer, the chief U.N. climate-change negotiator, will address the conference today.

Participants aim to forge a global consensus about how to curb carbon dioxide emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The White House casts the conference, which Mr. Bush announced in May, as a follow-up to the U.N. talks.

"We expect the results in 2008 from the major economies process to contribute to a global agreement under the U.N. framework by 2009," said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore.

Representatives from the 17 countries with the largest amounts of carbon emissions, along with U.N. representatives, are attending the meetings in Washington.

"If the major economies can agree on a way forward, that would accelerate prospects for an agreement at the U.N.," Miss Lawrimore said.

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