at a time when the un was trying to work towards a post-Kyoto agreement, us President George w Bush held a meeting of 17 top emitters of greenhouse gases for a dialogue on energy and climate change.

The us meeting was held on September 27, two days after the un conclave, a prelude to the un conference on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, in December (see also box: What after Kyoto). Critics see this as an attempt to derail the un efforts on climate change."Rather than joining the rest of the world and doing all he can to support the un framework convention on climate change, Bush proposes separate meetings to sidetrack the un process,' said Brent Blackwelder, the president of the Friends of the Earth's us chapter.

Stating that curbing emissions be made a long-term goal, Bush outlined an American solution based on voluntary limits to emissions. "Each nation will design its own separate strategies for making progress toward achieving this long-term goal. These strategies will reflect each country's different energy resources, different stages of development and different economic needs,' Bush said, adding that this "does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity'. He emphasized that developing countries, such as China and India, should accept emission cuts. Bush announced that clean technology was his new approach to energy security and climate change. This approach must involve the world's largest producers of greenhouse-gases, he stressed.

Only developed nations that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol are under binding agreement to cut emissions. The us did not ratify the agreement citing the omission of developing economies from emission cuts.
Not a clean approach Many present at the us meet termed the voluntary measures ineffective. "The approach is now pretty much discredited internationally,' said John Ashton, a special adviser on climate change to the uk government.

The us faces criticism against the approach from within as well. Senate majority leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a letter to the us president, wrote: "Your administration has been pursuing an alternative approach based on purely aspirational targets and non-binding pledges of national action. This voluntary approach