Gore and Bono call for more work on climate and poverty

By The Associated Press

DAVOS, Switzerland: The former U.S. vice president Al Gore and the frontman of the rock group U2, Bono, offered measured praise Thursday for efforts in tackling climate change and global poverty, but warned the World Economic Forum that conditions were not improving fast enough.

At an early morning session that drew several hundred attendees, many clutching cups of coffee or tea, Gore warned that the world climate crisis was worsening. "We could take the whole session talking just about the new scientific evidence of the last few weeks and months," said Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fight climate change, adding that the "climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding more rapidly."

Bono, a vocal and prominent advocate of reducing poverty by providing debt relief to African nations and increasing efforts to treat and prevent AIDS, asked leaders for more help.

"There are now two million Africans on retroviral drugs, and that is pretty astonishing," Bono said, wearing his trademark orange sunglasses. But, he added, efforts by the Group of 8 to pledge $50 billion annually to eliminate poverty had not been met. "Well, that's not so good, and it's strange because the good news makes the bad news even worse," he said. "The G-8 are not making good on their commitments."

"This is a scandal," Bono added. But he said there were encouraging signs. He said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany had told him she would press for another commitment. "She has promised to put that right, and that is courageous," considering that Germany was already spending 4 percent of its gross domestic product on its own efforts to reunify Eastern and Western Germany, Bono said.

He noted that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told him this month that he, too, would try to keep France's commitments to the poorest of the poor, even though he had his own campaign commitments to improve the lives of the French people. He said the Group of 8 industrial powers had given only about half of the increase to $50 billion a year in aid to Africa that it had targeted in its 2005 summit meeting in Scotland.

Gore said attempts to stop global warming also must be stepped up. "We are putting at risk all of human civilization," Gore said, adding, "With a global compact the world can solve the poverty crisis."

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Kamis 21 February 2008, 07.39 pagi)

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