"President Bush's policies on global warming are a disaster,"
said John Coequyt, energy policy analyst at Greenpeace USA. "His
international meeting on climate change in Hawaii slated to begin
tomorrow is a rogue process to deflect attention from the
administration's insistence to maintain America's dependence on
dirty and dangerous energy sources while failing to address the
growing climate crisis. As the Washington monument has long
outlived the president it was built to honor, so too will Bush's
legacy on climate change stand as a memorial to his neglect,
obstruction and destruction."
Greenpeace's projection served to call attention to Bush's
global warming policies a day after his State of the Union address
and on the eve of Bush's international meeting of the world's
largest emitters of global warming pollution, called the "Major
Economies Meeting," which takes place in Hawaii on Wednesday and
Thursday.
After being roundly rebuked in December in Bali at the UN's
International Conference on Climate Change, the Bush administration
continues to push its alternative Major Economies process that
seeks to replace the Kyoto Protocol's legally binding emissions
reduction targets with a completely inadequate voluntary approach.
"If the President were serious about leading on climate change, he
would stop obstructing the U.N.'s process and endorse a cap on U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions," Coequyt said. The United States stands
completely isolated as the only industrialized country on the
planet not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
"The Bush administration continues to push a climate-destroying
agenda and to obstruct all meaningful efforts to address global
warming by the international community," said Daniel Mittler of
Greenpeace International. "Its role was so negative at the global
negotiations on climate change in Bali last month that the U.S.
delegates were literally booed by other participants. It was a
stunning and well-deserved rebuke. This meeting is a charade and
has no legitimacy at all."
Greenpeace is calling on the countries attending the meeting to
maintain their commitments to substantive action under the Kyoto
Protocol. Participating countries include: Japan, France, Germany,
Italy, the United Kingdom, China, Canada, India, Brazil, South
Korea, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, and South Africa, as
well as the United Nations, the EU Presidency and the EU
Commission.
VVPR info: Jane Kochersperger, (202) 680-3798, 
Notes: A major emitters briefing memo is available upon request. For further information on the outcome of the Bali negotiations, go to: www.greenpeace.org/bali-meeting