Near a glacier that's retreating at an alarming pace, environmental ministers and other officials from 23 countries met Thursday and agreed that nations must take action against global warming.
ILULISSAT, Greenland — Near a glacier that's retreating at an alarming pace, environmental ministers and other officials from 23 countries met Thursday and agreed that nations must take action against global warming.
The meeting in the Arctic town of Ilulissat came at the end of a three-day trip by the officials through Greenland's spectacular but shrinking expanses of ice and snow. The vast island is one of the prime spots for assessing whether global warming is worsening.
Ilulissat sits at the edge of a spectacular glacier, the Sermeq Kujalleq, that has retreated some 110 kilometers (70 miles) since 1960, adding to fears that the planet is on the verge of catastrophic warming.
The officials came from both sides of the global warming controversy's fault lines, from countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol -- which aims to counter global warming by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases -- and those that reject it, including the United States.
The dispute over Kyoto has been marked by sharp criticism from both factions -- but the participants in this week's meetings and inspection trips appeared unified in agreeing that the time for such rhetoric has passed.
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"We have to act, we cannot afford inaction," said Connie Hedegaard, the environment minister of Denmark, of which Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory.
She told a news conference that the officials' discussions were "open and free," but the contents of the discussion were kept confidential. U.S. envoy Harlan Watson did not appear at the news conference and was not immediately available for comment.
"No one doubts that global warming has consequences on the environment and the people, " South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said. "It now has become mainstream to believe that it has an impact on our globe."
The conference took no decisions on how to fight global warming.
"We must stop the blaming game. We should present credible visions on how to make their own fair contributions to combatting global warming," Hedegaard said.
The United States, which accounts for one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, saying it would harm its economy.
Last month U.S. President George W. Bush presented a plan that critics say is a ploy to undo the Kyoto pact.
The initiative is aimed at inventing and selling technologies ranging from "clean coal" and wind power to next-generation nuclear fission as a means of reducing pollution and addressing climate concerns.
Participants in the Greenland meeting said that the Kyoto Protocol and the U.S. initiative should be regarded as "complimentary, not in opposition," according to British environment minister Elliot Morley.
The meeting also included officials from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU Commission, Germany, the Faeroe Islands, Finland, France, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Japan, Morocco, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden and Tuvalu.
Source: Associated Press
