Bush wants G8 climate debate to move beyond Kyoto

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – President Bush said before a G8summit on Wednesday that he recognized human beings contributedto global climate change but he remained unyielding in hisopposition to the Kyoto accord on the issue.

“Listen, I recognize the surface of the Earth is warmer,and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans iscontributing to the problem,” he told a news conference duringa visit to Denmark on his way to the G8 summit in Scotland.

He said: “Kyoto didn’t work for the United States andfrankly it didn’t work for the world” because many developingnations were not included. He said he was pushing for apost-Kyoto era at the G8 summit.

“I would call it the post-Kyoto era, where we can worktogether to share technologies to control greenhouse gases asbest as possible,” Bush told the reporters.

Climate change is a top-of-the-agenda issue at the G8meeting. The United States, the world’s biggest polluter, isthe only one of the eight countries at the summit not to havesigned the treaty to cut emissions of carbon dioxide.

Despite speculation in the British media, U.S. officialssaid on Tuesday that Bush had not softened his stance ahead ofthe meeting of leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany,Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

“Listen the United States for national security reasons andeconomic security needs to diversify away from fossil fuels. Sowe put out a strategy to do just that. I can’t wait to share itwith our G8 friends,” he said.