U.S. Backs Record on Environment Matters

U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan address a media conference, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the U.N. conference on climate change Wednesday that it's clear it will cost far less to cut greenhouse-gas emissions now "than to deal with the consequences later."(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi) (Khalil Senosi - AP)

"There are diverse approaches to address climate change," she said. "We need to find ways to encourage and recognize different approaches and solutions wherever they occur."

U.S. officials also say the country is doing better at voluntarily restraining the growth of such gases than are some countries committed to reductions under the Kyoto Protocol.

Closed-door talks in Nairobi are focusing on how to set emissions quotas after 2012 period _ a regime many hope will include the United States. Cabinet ministers from around the world were arriving to take up such key issues.

Bangladesh's environment secretary, Hyder Ali, told the conference it was vital that industrial nations commit to deeper emissions cuts. He said that according to one estimate, 5 million people may be displaced by rising seas in low-lying Bangladesh.

At best, however, the conference may simply set a timetable for talks into next year. Many think real negotiations will come only after the Bush administration leaves office.

"The United States will return to the negotiating table with a serious proposal when a new president takes office in 2009," said conference observer Philip Clapp.

Clapp, president of the U.S. group National Environmental Trust, noted that Democratic and Republican contenders in the 2008 presidential election favor capping U.S. emissions.

Other climate campaigners oppose this strategy of marking time.

"That won't work," said Hans Verolme, Dutch spokesman for Climate Action Network, an alliance of environmentalist groups. "It would allow the U.S. to hold the negotiations hostage."