Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, says the United States has blocked progress on two key issues to protect the global environment.
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The Potsdam conference brought together ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations - the United States, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy and Russia - and Brazil, India, China Mexico and South Africa from the developing world.
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Ministers stressed that the meeting had shown that there was a good deal of consensus on the scale and nature of the problem of climate change - but a lack of agreement on the tools to tackle it.
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According to one delegate the United States was "not subtle" in its opposition to carbon trading, and to another proposal that would pay developing countries to preserve rainforests. (emp. added)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6463143.stmLots more world respect as we lead the way! :sarcasm: