These leaf-shaped ecological messages posted to George Bush during the summit did little to move the President. Bush's single new commitment to the summit was an offer to hold a con-erence of industrialised nations next January to discuss national plans for combating the greenhouse effect. Such plans are called for by the Climate Convention, which he had just signed.
The offer was swiftly undermined by Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission, another reluctant participant in the summit. Such a meeting should not be held until next summer, he said. 'A year is enough time.'
Then he criticised Bush for bypassing the UN negotiating machinery set up to prepare the convention and put it into effect. 'If we set up these organisations, we can't keep denying them,' said Delors.
But Delors in turn came under attack for operating a dual-track European environment policy. How, he was asked by journalists, did ...
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