In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize today, Al Gore urged the world to do more to tackle the climate crisis, and added:
But the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United States and China. While India is also growing fast in importance, it should be absolutely clear that it is the two largest CO2 emitters — most of all, my own country — that will need to make the boldest moves, or stand accountable before history for their failure to act.Both countries should stop using the other’s behavior as an excuse for stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment. [Full text]
Nevertheless, the Environmental News Service reports from the Bali climate change conference that this in unlikely:
At the half-way point of the UN climate change conference in Bali, delegates from the world’s biggest polluters, the United States and China, are declining to commit to the steep cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases scientists say are necessary to avert the worst impacts of global warming…
A Chinese goverment climate expert who is part of the Chinese delegation in Bali conference says developing nations like China need not adopt binding emissions cuts because they have not been pumping out greenhouse gases as long as industrialized countries. [Full text]