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Mixed reaction to Bush climate-change statement

US president George W Bush seized the initiative on climate change on Thursday, pleasing some world leaders while infuriating environmental critics who accused him of attempting to divert attention from next week's G8 meeting. There, he will come under intense pressure to keep within the UN process for tackling climate change.
Bush offered to lead a new, post-Kyoto process under which the world’s leading 15 greenhouse-gas emitters — including China and India — would work together on a framework for cutting emissions. In the meantime, Bush suggested, each nation would set "midterm" goals that "reflect their own mix of energy sources and future energy needs". That is seen as a clear signal that the US will not back away from its
own reliance on highly polluting coal.

"Bush’s idea of initiating new, parallel talks between just a few countries is nothing but an effort to derail the ongoing talks" under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Saleemul Huq, head of the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development, and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Developing countries should not fall into his trap of delaying action under a UN framework."