U.S. defends its tactics on global warming

NAIROBI, Kenya — The United States, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, staunchly defended its record on battling global warming Wednesday, as the U.N. chief lamented a "frightening lack" of international leadership on climate change.

"The United States is committed to addressing the serious global challenge of climate change," said Paula Dobriansky, a U.S. undersecretary of state and head of the American delegation to the U.N. climate conference in Nairobi.

The two-week meeting, entering its final three days, has been working on technical issues involving the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges 35 industrial nations to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The United States and Australia are the only major industrialized countries to reject Kyoto. President Bush says it would harm the U.S. economy, and it should have required cutbacks in poorer nations as well.

Dobriansky stressed U.S. efforts to develop clean energy technology in partnership with other countries, saying, "We must act in ways that encourage economic growth."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the conference that those who would deny global warming or delay taking action against it are "out of step" and "out of time."

Scientists attribute at least some of the past century's 1-degree rise in global temperatures to the atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, byproducts of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel-burning sources.