UN Climate Chief Seeks Obama Input In December Talks

The UN climate chief said Wednesday he was "very encouraged" by Barack Obama's stance on global warming, and said he hoped the US president-elect would join in key talks in December before taking office.

"It is impossible to advance on this important topic without the full engagement of the United States," Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told AFP by phone.

"I am very encouraged by the stated commitment of Senator Obama to the issue of climate change, and I really hope that he or his representatives can come to the climate change conference in Poznan (in western Poland) and speak to his vision of the way forward," he said.

Within months of taking office in 2001, George W. Bush walked out on the Kyoto Protocol, dealing a near-lethal blow to UN efforts to reach a follow-on agreement on how best to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

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