Bush administration isolated at Bali climate conference

The Bush administration delegation, virtually isolated among the 12,000 in attendance on Bali, flatly rejected any practical measures to combat global warming, blocking the adoption of numerical targets for the reduction of greenhouse emissions. The chief US representative, Harlan L. Watson, declared Wednesday, “The reality in this business is that once numbers appear in the text, it prejudges the outcome and will tend to drive the negotiations in one direction.”

The US government also called for removing language that calls for “sufficient, predictable, additional and sustainable financial resources” to help poor nations adapt to climate change.

Bush environmental advisor James Connaughton sought to substitute verbal salutes to the UN panel for any action, saying the IPCC has “already done great work. We should declare the IPCC a success and move forward ...”