Bush chats with Merkel and Barroso, agrees climate change is a problem
U.S. President George W. Bush met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and E.U. President Jose Manuel Barroso at the White House yesterday, chatting about international trade, air-travel policy, missile shields, and The Most Important Issue of Our Time. Though no climate action steps were agreed to, Merkel and Barroso seemed happy that Bush even acknowledged the problem. “We agree there is a threat, there is a very serious and global threat. We agree that there is a need to reduce emissions. We agree that we should work together,” said Barroso at the post-convo press conference. Bush, as usual, was fixated on China’s-not-cutting-emissions-so-why-should-we, leading Merkel to explain, “If the developed countries who have the best technology don’t do anything, it will be even harder to convince the others. But without convincing the others, CO2 emissions worldwide will not go down.” Climate is on the agenda at June’s G8 summit in Germany — we’ll look forward to copying and pasting this blurb then.
