Nations agree to speed up climate talks, except for the US

The New York Times: A UN meeting to discuss how to fight global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires will have dozens of world leaders attend today, except for President Bush, who will miss the discussions but will turn up for dinner later tonight says New York Times reporter Steven Lee Myers. The President instead will focus on an alternative meeting later this week that will propose voluntarily emission caps by individual countries instead of a binding international treaty. Mr. Bush’s approach sets the stage for a new round of diplomatic confrontation says Myers, and once again raises the prospect that the US will be accused of objecting to any binding international agreement intended to slow or reverse the emissions linked to rising temperatures.In a related Reuters story published in the same section of the New York Times, a UN conference in Montreal on Friday showed the value of binding treaties by declaring that the production and use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) will be phased out for developed countries to 2020 from 2030 and to 2030 from 2040 for developing nations; 10 years ahead of schedule. HCFCs destroy the ozone layer and also have a significant global warming effect, the equivalent to billions of tones in greenhouse gas emissions. “It (the deal) ... will stand out as a pivotal moment in the international fight against global warming,” says Canadian Environment Minister John Baird.