OSLO - Unconvinced that the world is warming, US President George W. Bush looks set to shun pleas by his main industrial allies to step up a fight against climate change at a Group of Eight summit next month. The July 6-8 talks will test how far other G8 nations, and big developing countries whose leaders will also attend, are willing to stick to UN schemes to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases without the United States, the top polluter.
"The choice at the summit is a weak agreement or no agreement at all," said Elliot Diringer, a director of the Washington-based Pew Center, an environmental think-tank. "There is no indication that the Bush administration is willing to move in any significant way," he said of the Scotland summit, where climate change and aid to Africa are top themes.
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In a June 14 draft, the sentences "Our world is warming" and "We know that the increase is due in large part to human activity" are in brackets, indicating US disagreement. Many scientists are aghast -- the science academies of all G8 nations as well as of China, India and Brazil said this month that burning of fossil fuels in power plants, cars and factories seemed the main cause of recent warming. "I think the consensus is very, very strong and very compelling that we are on a warming trend," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of a panel of more than 2,000 scientists that advises the United Nations on climate policy.
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(And) the US Senate on Wednesday rejected a less demanding plan to cut US emissions below 2000 levels by 2010, by 60-38 votes. However, the Senate did agree a non-binding resolution calling for a mandatory cap-and-trade system to cut emissions."
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