中国气候变化信息网 China Climate Change Info-Net

The Bush administration is hosting an international conference of world's major economies in Honolulu, Hawaii, starting Wednesday, to address the issues related to climate change.

Known as the "Major economies meeting on energy security and climate change", the Hawaii meeting serves as a follow-up for a first round of U.S.-hosted climate change talks among major economies in September last year in Washington.

The idea of bring world's major economies for climate change talks was initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush in May 2007, when the United States is under growing pressure to contribute more to solving the problem of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Although the Bush administration repeatedly said the Hawaii meeting is simply to supplement the U.N. process, there are suspicions that it is intended to sidetrack the U.N. climate talks and push forward its own agenda on the issue, which the U.S. government denies.

It said the meeting is aimed to advance the U.N. agenda and feed new ideas to climate change negotiation process under the U.N. framework.

At climate-change talks in Bali, Indonesia in December last year, the U.S. government agreed to help write a new accord to replace the emissions-limiting Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

However, it is still resisting a global agreement on specific emissions reductions from all developed nations.

Many experts do not anticipate any major moves by the Bush administration on climate change.

According to Bush administration officials, the major topics at the meeting include four areas.

First, there will be discussions on a long-term global goal and mid-term national goals for greenhouse-gas emission reduction that's consistent with economic development objectives.

Second, how to persuade all the major countries to take measurable, reportable and verifiable actions.

Third, collaborative technology development and deployment strategies.

Fourth, financing for the adoption of existing clean technologies and the development of new ones.

Some 160 Representatives from the EU, United Nations, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Britain and the United States are attending the two-day conference in Honolulu.