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?Our comments and reasoning are in the document below. We have tried to ?tread lightly? but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position.?

The changes made to the title of the document clearly highlight the American priorities with regards to climate change: security. The title was changed from ?Climate Change and Energy Efficiency: Challenge and Opportunity for the World Economy.? to ?Energy Security, Efficiency, and Climate Change: Challenge and Opportunity for the World Economic Growth.?

At the recent UN Commission on Sustainable Development the chairman, Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, presented a ?decision document? to the delegates which was designed to summarise what had been agreed. The chairman told the commission that the decision document was ?non-negotiable? and had to be either accepted in its entirety or rejected.

Speaking for the European Union, the German delegate rejected the document on the basis that it did not go far enough. The Americans accepted the document. What did the decision document say? It amounted to little more than ?try hard to do better.? There was no agreement on targets, other than targets that had already been accepted. There was no agreement on deadlines.

In the leaked document, America essentially deleted all targets and time-lines. What will happen at the G8 meeting in Heiligendamm next week? It seems that no-one is optimistic of unanimous agreement of actions on climate change. Perhaps the meetings should agree to have two agreement texts: one for G7 and one for G1. If, as the consensus says, climate change is a matter of urgency, why should we wait for a presidency to end before implementing change?

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