14 DAY TRIAL // Food production, public health and the environment were the main topics of an international conference on climate change that took place November 18-19 in Beverly Hills, California. Officials from the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, India, Indonesia and Brazil attended, including businessmen, environmentalists, heads of national environment protection programs and governors. The main goal of the new meeting was to create a new international framework for states to stick to over the next years.
The United Nations also had a representative at the meeting, in the person of the World Wildlife Fund president, Carter Roberts. "This summit brings together leaders who are in the true hot spots around the world," the official said before the meeting. "Our primary goal is to come out with strong working partnerships," commissioner of environmental conservation for New York state, Pete Granni added.
"Through this collaboration, we are sending a powerful message to the rest of the world while striving to influence the position our national governments take in the next global agreement on climate change," said California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who lately adopted several measures aimed at reducing the potential impact of global warming on the state he runs. "The truth is that there is far more economic opportunity in fighting global warming than there is economic risk," he went on to say.
However, despite the optimistic feeling in the air, the participants had to discuss very sensible issues, such as the prevalence of fossil fuels in electricity production and vehicles, the pollution heavy industries give off and the threat melting glaciers and the weather pose on agricultural practices.
This meeting is a "warm-up" for the big one, to take place in Copenhagen next year, that representatives from 170 states will be attending. The stake of that conference is to set in place a new international bill, which would replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.
Schwarzenegger restated his support for fighting global warming and said that, although California was facing a record budget deficit, he would not renounce any of the measures he vowed to set in place. Yvo de Boer, the chief of the UN Commission on Climate Change, warned the Republican governor to act cautiously in this matter, saying that "You can't pick an empty pocket."