Critics slam Bush's "Neanderthal" climate plan

Delegates at this week's meeting of major polluters in Paris launched a stinging attack on President Bush's latest climate change strategy, with Germany mocking the plan to ensure US emissions peak by 2025 as "Neanderthal".

Earlier this week, President Bush set a target for ensuring growth in US emissions halts by 2025, announced an overhaul of incentives for green energy and signalled his opposition to the proposed Lieberman-Warner climate change bill by again outlining his opposition to legally binding emission caps.

Delegates at this week's Paris summit joined a chorus of disapproval from environmentalists, accusing the president of offering far too little, too late.

The criticism was led by German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel who accused the president of undermining the more conciliatory stance the US has taken towards climate change talks since last year's UN meeting in Bali. In a statement entitled "Bush's Neanderthal speech", Gabriel said that the White House "showed not leadership but losership", and expressed relief that there are "other voices in the United States" that take action on climate change seriously.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas was similarly disappointed, telling AFP that Bush's plans "will not contribute to the fight against climate change" .

South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told reporters that negotiators were now looking forward to the next US administration, " because we believe we can probably only do better".

US negotiator James Connaughton defended the president's speech in a news conference, insisting that the administration was trying "to steer away from rhetorical commitments that have no prayer of being met". He also argued that progress was continuing to be made at the major polluters' meetings, which were launched by Bush last year, and said that the White House had not given up on its promise to seriously consider an aspirational target for global carbon emissions if all major emitters sign up.

However, with many delegates insisting that Bush's new target will not prove sufficient to curb dangerous levels of global warming attention will today turn to US State Governors, many of whom are meeting at Yale University to discuss their strategy for tackling climate change.

The group of governors, including California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, are today expected to sign a "climate change declaration" outlining their stance on state and federal climate change policy. The declaration is expected to further crank up pressure on the current presidential hopefuls, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to make good on their promises to take much firmer action on climate change in the event they make it to the White House.