Discontent Grows with U.S. at Climate Talks

Separately, European delegates and the head of the African bloc at the 192-party talks also denounced U.S. positions at the talks, which are seeking ways to curb the ever-expanding emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

“Developed countries as a whole are not taking climate change seriously as a global issue,” Mr Seyni Nafo, of Mali, told The Associated Press. “Look at the U.S. We use and we welcome their leadership on democracy, on access to markets, on human rights issues. We would want to have the same leadership to tackle climate change, because for us in the developing world the biggest threat, the biggest enemy, is climate change.”

Discontent directed at Washington came as the UN’s top climate scientist, Mr Rajendra Pachauri, warned the conference’s 15,000 participants that global warming is leading to human dangers and soaring financial costs, but that containing carbon emissions will have a host of benefits.

Although he gave no explicit deadlines, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change implied that the world only has a few years before the Earth is irreversibly damaged by accumulations of carbon in the atmosphere.

The letter to Ms Clinton signed by the chief executives of 16 major non-profit groups also stressed the urgency of finding solutions to the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide, mainly from burning fossil fuels for energy, industry and transportation.