ZT: 星岛：戈尔惊爆气候峰会失败内幕中国暗地向美提议遭

2dmin

2010年4月23日星岛日报综合报道：

美国前副总统戈尔透露内幕，指出去年底哥本哈根气候峰会之前，中国曾向美国提出建议，遭美国拒绝。他说峰会失败，美国应负大部分责任。

戈尔周四在满地可出席国际会议，他在会上透露，哥本哈根峰会在去年12 月举行；在峰会举行之前中国曾向美国提出建议，但美国拒绝了。

按戈尔的说法，美国国会提出的环境改革议案，其中一项建议是要大大降低美国的温室气体排放，但议案去秋没有在美国参议院通过，而且也令中国在峰会举行前收到错误的讯息。

他说：「中国曾透过私人渠道向美国提议，如果美国通过法律，规定废排标准在1990 年水平以下，中国便会着力，协助谈判出一个有用的、有约束力的协议。」

结果，出席峰会各国代表只是通过了简单的协议，表示「明白」有需要就气候转变问题上采取行动，令环保分子气馁。

　　美国应负大部分责任

峰会无法达成有约束力的协议，几名观察家的评论是中国需负责任，但戈尔的发言否定了这说法。

他说道：「参议院没有通过议案，中国也踌躇不前，其余各国也只是获得一纸政治上约束力的协议。」戈尔说：「峰会也有小许作为，但不足以称之为成功。」
此后，美国一些参议员将该法案大事修改，结果去年无法通过。他们下周会在华府提出一连串妥协改革，戈尔称获得通过的机会会高些。

是次会议是联合国千禧年发展目标会议(Millennium Development Goals)。戈尔的发言是要将贫穷及气候转变拉上关系。　　（资料来源：加通社）
Gore blames U.S. for Copenhagen failure

Thu Apr 22, 5:13 PM
By Jonathan Montpetit, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - The United States deserves much of the blame for the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit after it turned its back on a little-known offer from China, former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said Thursday.

Gore offered a post-mortem of the summit at an international conference in Montreal, during which he revealed the Americans ignored a proposal from China in the days leading up to the December meetings.

Last fall, the U.S. Senate avoided passing sweeping environmental reforms that would have included a law to drastically cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Gore, that sent the wrong signal to a potential ally heading into the climate talks.

"China had sent word through private channels to the U.S. that if the U.S. passed a law requiring a reduction of emissions below the 1990 levels then China would lean forward and help get a meaningful binding treaty," he told an audience of several hundred people.

"But the Senate failed to act and so President Obama was forced to go to Copenhagen without anything to put on the table."

The Copenhagen summit ended with a watered-down agreement by hundreds of countries to "take note" of the need for action on climate change, frustrating many environmentalists.

Gore's comments in Montreal will challenge the interpretation of several observers who blamed China for the failure to reach a binding accord.

He said following the Americans' refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the international community needed to see concrete action from Washington to prove it was serious about tackling climate change.

"When the Senate failed, then China balked and the rest of it unravelled to the point where they got a politically binding agreement but no more," Gore said.

"There was some progress, but not nearly enough to call it a success."

Some U.S. senators have since overhauled the legislation that failed to pass last year. They will unveil a series of compromise reforms in Washington next week that Gore says stand a greater chance of becoming law.

In his speech to the conference, which centred on the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, Gore sought to make the link between poverty and climate change.

It represented an expansion of the Nobel laureate's more scientific arguments about the urgency of dealing with climate change.

The science of climate change has faced an unprecedented attack in recent months after several errors were discovered in estimates by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the group with which Gore shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Gore himself appeared to back away from earlier warnings the summer Arctic ice cap could disappear by 2014, saying Thursday it was "a matter of a decade or so."

Instead he focused on the moral dimension of the climate change debate, which he called "a challenge to our understanding of who we are as human beings."

Indeed, Gore ended his speech sounding more like a preacher than a scientist.

"Rally the forces of conscience and common sense to solve this crisis," he implored his audience.