bush's version of "progress" is vastly different than most people's

Bush: 'Significant progress' on climate change

TOYAKO, Japan - President Bush hailed the move by G-8 leaders to coalesce behind a strategy for a global climate-change accord, saying Wednesday "significant progress" was made. But environmentalists and the U.N.'s top climate official disputed his claims.

"I don't find the outcome very significant," Yvo de Boer, who head the United Nations-led global negotiations to forge a new climate change treaty, told The Associated Press in telephone interview from his home in the Netherlands.

De Boer said the summit's vague pledge to work toward slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 mentioned no baseline, did not appear to be legally binding and was open to vastly different interpretations. He praised China's President Hu Jintao for acknowledging that developing countries must act on climate change even if Beijing rejects specific national targets.

Environmentalists also argued the goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 50 percent did not go far enough and amounted to political window-dressing.

"To be meaningful and credible, a long-term goal must have a base year, it must be underpinned by ambitious midterm targets and actions," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, who called the G-8 statement an "empty slogan."

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This is what bush likes - vague promises and no real action.