Nations skeptical of U.S. climate talks

WASHINGTON – A day before President Bush’s climate talks, China and other developing nations said Wednesday the need to provide food, shelter and clothes for their citizens must come ahead of global warming concerns.

“For a developing country, the main task is to reduce poverty,” Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China’s national development and reform commission, told a forum sponsored by the Center for Clean Air Policy, a think tank.

Mexico’s environment minister agreed. “We have always to bear in mind that half our population is at the poverty line,” said Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada. “We are also extremely concerned about the consequences, the adverse affects of climate change.”

They expressed a strong preference for the climate negotiations later this year sponsored by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, instead of Bush’s meeting Thursday and Friday for 16 “major emitter” countries, including China and India.

AP