President Obama has announced at the G-2o summit that the US will try to “lead by example” so that China and India could follow suit and lower their pollution.
Speaking at the G20 meeting of major economies, (President Obama) used his presidential debut on the world stage to contrast his policies with those of former President George W. Bush, who had twinned U.S. action to curb climate greenhouse gases with pressure on emerging economic powerhouses.
“China and India … justifiably chafe at the idea that they should somehow sacrifice their development for our efforts to control climate change,” Obama told a news conference at the conclusion of the London summit…”If China and India with their populations had the same energy usage as the average American then we would all have melted by now”, he said.
Developing countries say that the developed world has earned its wealth from more than two centuries of industrialisation, spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the process from burning fossil fuels like coal and oil.
Obama’s speech at the summit:
See also past CDT posts on the G-20.
