WORK TOGETHER: German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill Nov. 3, 2009, in Washington, D.C. (Bundesregierung/Steffen Kugler-Pool/Getty Images))
Merkel addressed Congress, asking Democrats and Republicans to work together and move the Democrat-sponsored bill forward. Some Republican senators in key positions boycotted the bill.
Another boycott occurred in Spain, as African representatives refused to meet with other nations over climate talks, saying that industrialized nations are not doing enough to combat global warming.
The chair of the African group, Kamel Djemouai, said that the emissions cuts pledged by developed nations were not enough. "I don't think we can get to a result in the way we're going now,” Djemouai said.
African nations want wealthy nations to reduce emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The boycott ended at the end of the day. The group said that they would continue their boycott on Wednesday if no changes were made.
Next month at a Copenhagen meeting, countries will try to create a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and will expire in 2012.
“We need an agreement on one objective—global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius,” said Merkel.
U. S. President Barack Obama has taken a public stance on the importance of addressing global warming.
Republicans argue that the bill would create more economic losses, as the bill emphasizes the transition from fossil fuels to more renewable sources of energy. This transition, Republicans say, will be overly costly to already overextended consumers.
The GOP boycott makes passage of the bill unlikely by the start of the summit in Copenhagen, which goes from Dec. 7 to 18.
President Obama and other European leaders said that they would increase their efforts to make a deal at the meeting in Copenhagen
