Gore urges U.S. approval of the project against climate change
PERUGIA, Italy (Reuters) – A bill to combat climate change will be presented Monday at the U.S. Congress has a 50 percent chance of being approved, said former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
The adoption of a “meaningful law” could push an agreement for a global climate treaty at a UN meeting in Mexico in November and December, Gore said Saturday in an interview with Reuters.
“I had hoped to approve legislation last year, and then earlier this year, and now hope to adopt it before the end of the year,” he said.
“I think there”s a 50-50 chance,” said veteran environmentalist when asked if the Senate would approve the law.
project is expected to curb carbon emissions from plants electricity and to impose a cost on transportation fuels, but has many Republican opponents comparing these measures with taxes.
Gore h1000elped negotiate the current Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas greenhouses in 1997, but then the U.S. Congress failed to ratify it, leaving his country as the only major developed nation outside the pact.
The administration of President Barack Obama wants a law to coordinate national climate the country”s action, which would raise the prospects for ratification of a successor deal to Kyoto.
The current round of Kyoto expires in 2012.
“excellent chance”
A UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December failed expectations, failing to agree a new treaty or set carbon emissions targets for developed nations binding.
“If the U.S. takes action, it will change the prospects for a global treaty dramatically,” said Gore, on the sidelines of a conference on journalism in Italy.
“If the Senate approves the action, passed a law significantly this summer (northern hemisphere), then I think we have an excellent chance of success in negotiating the treaty this December,” he added.
Gore was critical of fossil fuel companies.
“The oil and coal companies have much political power, they have big money and big influence,” said Gore.
Burning oil and coal is a major source of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases, which is blamed for global warming.
Gore shared the Nobel Prize Peace with the Intergovernmental Panel on UN Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 for his work on campaigns to alert the world of climate change.
