Al Gore in Helsinki - expects USA to join Kyoto Climate Treaty soon

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Former US Vice President Al Gore predicts that his country will join the Kyoto Climate Treaty before President George W. Bush leaves office.
      Up to now, Bush has categorically refused to give US approval to the treaty aimed at limiting emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
      Speaking in Helsinki on Tuesday, Gore said that he had discussed the matter with an unnamed key researcher for the Bush Administration. The researcher had told Gore that the USA would join Kyoto at the latest "fifteen minutes after a new administration takes office".
      However, Gore added that Bush might also change his mind, as several key researchers are "pushing him in that direction".
      Gore sees the global oil business as a receding one, with growth expected mainly in renewable energy sources, whose use is being advanced by the Kyoto Treaty. Consequently, Kyoto has begun to interest investors, who constitute a key political support group for Bush.
     
Since his defeat in the US Presidential elections in 2000, Gore has devoted much of his time to speaking about the dangers of global warming. Gore’s documentary film on the issue, An Inconvenient Truth, will have its Finnish premiere next week.
      According to Gore, the polluters are trying to obscure the issue, but he sees that attitudes are changing even in the political mainstream.
      Gore says that both the political system and the climate operate in a non-linear fashion, with long periods of slow movement, after which change can be very rapid.
      He read out a long list of significant climatic events in recent years, including the record-warm summers that Finland has been experiencing. He also welcomed the recent decision by the state of California to implement its own emission limits and to introduce a system of trade in emissions.
     
Gore came to Helsinki mainly to promote his Generation Investment Management company, which has entered into cooperation with the Finnish company Sampo Fund Management.
      Gore’s company is to begin managing a Sampo fund which invests in companies promoting sustainable development. So far, the Sampo fund has only EUR 15 million in investment capital, whereas its new American portfolio manager is administering capital worth about 400 million US dollars.


Links:
  Generation Investment Management

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