KOBE, Japan, Jan 19 (AFP) - "The United States, which opposes the Kyoto protocol on global warming, is trying to remove references to climate change in UN talks aimed at setting up a disaster early warning system, a US official said Wednesday.
The US has voiced objections to "multiple" references to climate change in drafting documents for the global conference in Kobe, Japan on disaster reduction, said Mark Lagon, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department bureau of international organization affairs.
He said the United States believed climate change was a "well-known" controversy and that there were "other venues" to discuss it. "Our desire is that this does not distract from this process," Lagon said. He said other countries including Australia and Iran had also "raised concerns" about references to climate change. "The US is not the only country asking questions about climate references," he said.
EDIT
But experts here have called for measures to reduce the risks of all disasters and cited global warming as a concern. UN relief chief Jan Egeland in his opening address Tuesday to the five-day conference said that in addition to natural disasters, "We now face threats of our own collective making: global warming, environmental degradation and uncontrolled urbanization."
EDIT/END
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=2588