"U.S. Rejects New UN Environmental Body"

Democracy Now
5 February 2007

Forty six nations have backed a call to form a new environmental body to fight global warming and to protect the planet. The United States however is refusing to support the initiative. So are China and India. The United States is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide. France proposed the formation of the new United Nations environmental body following the publication of last week's major report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Scientists warned that fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this century, worsen floods, produce more droughts and hurricanes, melt polar sea ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.

French President Jacques Chirac: "Faced with this emergency, now is not the time for half measures. It is time for a revolution in the most authentic meaning of the word: a revolution to raise people's awareness, a revolution of the economy, a revolution of political action."