WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush was to make a rare sortie into the climate-change arena on Friday, making a closely-watched speech at his forum gathering the world's 16 biggest greenhouse-gas polluters.
After Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday made the most strongly-worded statement on climate change in his administration's history, Bush was to be scrutinised for any sign that he would follow this rhetoric with policy change. "I think that we all want to hear (from Bush) a very strong commitment to tackle climate change, not just through voluntary action or vague references... but quantifiable measures, verifiable results," Mexico's delegate to the talks, Fernando Tudela, told journalists.
South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told AFP: "We came here expecting something new, so we're all waiting with bated breath for the speech by President Bush to see if he can fulfill that expectation. That's why we're all here."
Bush was to make a 10-minute speech in the morning session of the two-day meeting -- an initiative he proposed in June while under intensifying pressure to end his six years of isolation from the global task force for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Ed. - emphasis added.
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