Boycotts on both sides of the Atlantic Tuesday showed how difficult it will be to clinch an agreement on global warming.
At U.N. climate talks in Barcelona, Spain, African nations walked out of meetings to protest rich nations' reluctance to make substantial carbon-cutting commitments. In Washington, some conservative Republicans boycotted the start of committee debate on a bill to curb greenhouse gases, fearful of the cost to the economy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a bid to support the Democratic-sponsored climate bill, told a rare joint session of Congress "there is no time to lose" in tackling climate change.
But the lukewarm response to her comments on global warming underscored the skeptical mood in America about climate action, which would require a shift away from fossil fuels to wind and solar power, smaller cars and — Republicans argue — more expense to consumers.
GOP senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee shunned the planned startup of voting on amendments to the bill. Only Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, showed up and he stayed only for 15 minutes to give the reasons for the Republicans' absence.
Merkel, the first German leader in more than 50 years to address Congress, said people must tear down mental walls that blocked them from seeing the plight of future generations if warming continued unchecked. The world's nations meet next month in Copenhagen, Denmark, for climate talks. She said they would need to find the same resolve that Germans had when they brought down the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.
"And then, in Copenhagen, we shall be able to overcome this wall separating the present from the future, in the interest of our children and grandchildren, and in the interest of sustainable development all over the world," Merkel said.
She urged the United States to join Europe in setting a limit on heat-trapping gases from fossil-fuel burning. "It is true there can be no agreement without China and India," she said. "But I'm convinced that once we — Europe and America — show ourselves willing to accept binding agreements we will also be able to convince China and India to join."
Merkel met with President Barack Obama earlier Tuesday at the White House.
"The United States, Germany and countries around the world, I think, are all beginning to recognize why it is so important that we work in common in order to stem the potential catastrophe that could result if we continue to see global warming continuing unabated," Obama said before the meeting.
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