Pelosi: Bali Conference Offers Bush Another Chance to Engage World Leaders on Global Warming

Washington, D.C.  - Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today, the first day of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia. Thousands of delegates from more than 180 countries around the world are attending the 11-day conference on climate change.

'The Bali conference offers the Bush Administration another opportunity to actively and constructively engage with the world's leaders and achieve an international agreement that will reduce the greenhouse gas and other emissions that cause global warming.

'Given the threat to our future and our children, there is no excuse for President Bush to allow the United States to remain the only major industrial power in the world that refuses to sign on to an international effort to combat the climate crisis.  With every day the Administration delays, we move another day closer to a time when climate change will become irreversible.

'Here at home, the New Direction Congress will soon pass comprehensive energy security legislation that will cut carbon emissions while making America more energy independent and reducing prices for consumers.  I urge President Bush to sign our energy security bill and work with Congress on additional legislation that will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

'The Bush Administration must reassert America's moral leadership in the world by getting off the sidelines and working with world leaders at Bali to combat the climate crisis.'