what a surprise - bush's climate meeting was a charade

Bush climate change conference a complete failure

You know things are bad when you can't even find one other country to say anything good about your big event. Besides Bush's "new approach" which is really the "old approach" that the GOP has talked about for years despite having been rejected by just about everyone outside of the GOP, he failed miserably again in finding anyone to support his half baked climate change plan. When you can't even get China and India to join in, you know you have problems.

The conference, attended by more than 20 countries, including China, India, Britain, France and Germany, broke up with the US isolated, according to non-Americans attending. One of those present said even China and India, two of the biggest polluters, accepted that the voluntary approach proposed by the US was untenable and favoured binding measures, even though they disagreed with the Europeans over how this would be achieved.

A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major UN conference on climate change in Bali in December.

"It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the diplomat said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure."

John Ashton, Britain's special envoy on climate change, who attended the conference, said: "It is striking here how isolated the US has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialised countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of voluntary commitments.

Just like Iraq. Just like Katrina. Just like the economy. You name it, everything Bush and the GOP has tried to tackle has become a disaster.

(Americablog)