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Global warming: Bush talks money

An activist holds a burning US flag during an anti-US demonstration on Tuesday on Kongens Nytorv Square in downtown Copenhagen just a few hours before the arrival of US President George W. Bush in the city. PHOTO: EPA

US President George W. Bush urged leaders ahead of a G8 summit yesterday to spearhead a worldwide effort to invest in alternatives to oil and gas to help control global warming.

He also defended the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and said they will be given fair trials.

Speaking hours before the start of the G8 meeting in Scotland, Bush put forward economic arguments that might help bridge gaping US differences with the other seven countries over how to grapple with climate change.

"Listen, the United States for national security reasons and economic security needs to diversify away from fossil fuels. So we put out a strategy to do just that. I can't wait to share it with our G8 friends," he told reporters in Denmark.

Climate change is a top-of-the-agenda issue at the G8 meeting. The US, the world's biggest polluter, is the only one of the eight countries at the summit not to have signed the Kyoto treaty to cut emissions of carbon dioxide.

Despite speculation in the British media, US officials said on Tuesday that Bush had not softened his stance on Kyoto ahead of the meeting of G8 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US.

But in words viewed by other countries as conciliatory, Bush said: "Listen, I recognize the surface of the Earth is warmer, and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem."

Bush also said that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen raised concerns about the US detention camp in Cuba.

"The prisoners are well-treated in Guantanamo. There's total transparency. The International Red Cross can inspect anytime, any day," Bush said.

"These people are being treated humanely. There are very few prison systems around the world that have seen such scrutiny as this one," he said.

The Guantanamo camp, where some detainees have been held for three years without being charged, is a sore point in US-European relations. Even the Danish government, a staunch US ally in Iraq and Afghanistan, has called on the US to try the Guantanamo prisoners or release them.
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