Bush claims global climate deal possible on his watch

The likelihood of a global agreement being reached to cut carbon emissions received a huge boost yesterday when US president George Bush said he believed an international deal could be struck before he leaves office in early 2009.

Speaking at his final summit with EU leaders in Slovenia yesterday, Bush told reporters "I think we can get a global agreement on climate change during my presidency – just so you know."

He said that such a deal could be brokered through the US-sponsored series of meetings between major polluters and would crucially include both China and India.

"We have a strategy that we think will be effective in addressing climate change and at the same time dependence on hydrocarbons," Bush told reporters. " That is through a major economy meeting, a series of meetings aimed at getting major economies to agree to a firm goal and to commit to a strategy to achieve that goal."

However, he reiterated his view that such an agreement would depend on the stance adopted by China and India. "Unless China and India are at the table, unless they agree to a goal, unless they agree to firm strategies to achieve that goal, then I don't see how any international agreement can be effective," he said.

China and India have signalled that they could agree to binding emissions targets on the understanding that the US will do likewise and that technology transfer funds would be set up to help their transition to a low-carbon economy.

The meeting of major polluters has been widely criticised by environmentalists as a means of distracting from the UN process to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Agreement.

However, the US administration has maintained that the meetings will complement that process, hopefully delivering a consensus among the world's largest economies ahead of the culmination of the UN talks in Copenhagen late next year.