Nations still at odds on eve of G-20 summit
PITTSBURGH (AP) — On the eve of a summit of the world’s 20 top economies, the Obama administration pressed leaders Wednesday to overcome differences and work together more closely in confronting thorny financial and environmental problems.
“We simply cannot walk away from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and not do everything in our power to reform the system that contributed to this breakdown,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a congressional panel in Washington.
President Barack Obama, delivering his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, urged world leaders to join him in confronting an abundance of global challenges.
“Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone,” he said. Obama was to arrive in Pittsburgh this afternoon. The summit will conclude Friday.
Leaders gathering here face daunting challenges in overcoming differences on major issues ranging from restraining bankers’ bonuses to overhauling financial regulation and plotting a future course for sustainable growth as the worst of the downturn appears to be over.
As some leaders began arriving, police said 14 members of the environmental group Greenpeace were arrested on two bridges. They faced various charges, including possession of an instrument of a crime, disorderly conduct, conspiracy and obstruction.
First, four environmental protesters rappelled off the West End Bridge over the Ohio River, dangling perilously over the water while steadying a large banner warning of “climate destruction” if world leaders don’t act to control carbon-dioxide emissions. After about two hours, the protesters climbed safely back up to the bridge deck.
Police said they arrested nine in that episode. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard said five others wearing harnesses and preparing to rappel off another span, the Fort Pitt Bridge, also were arrested.
With world economies now improving, some analysts and leaders suggested the urgency for acting together may have dissipated.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, warned that the earlier “cooperation took place because everybody was scared and understood it was not time to fight one against the other one, but to work together.
“Will it last beyond the crisis?” the IMF chief asked in an interview with PBS’ “News Hour with Jim Lehrer.” “That’s the big question. It has to for the sake of the global economy. Is it absolutely sure? I won’t say.”
Obama signaled he will use the G-20 summit to call for an end to extensive government subsidies that encourage the use of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, which are blamed for contributing to global warming, He will propose a gradual elimination, with the time frame to be determined, according to White House officials.
Mike Froman, Obama’s national security adviser for international economic affairs, said the main value of the proposal would be if other countries signed on. He declined to say whether Obama was willing to go it alone and try to eliminate such subsidies only in the United States.
Many countries, including the U.S., provide tax breaks and direct payments to help produce and use oil, coal, natural gas and other fuels that spew carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. Eliminating those would provide “a significant down payment” toward the U.S. goal of cutting fossil-fuel emissions in half by 2050, Froman said.
However, this proposal was likely to spark opposition from China and possibly some other major greenhouse-gas emitters such as India and Russia.
Geithner, in an appearance before the House Financial Services Committee, warned against complacency amid signs of a global rebound.
The talks in Pittsburgh will take place under heavy security. Thousands of police were busy erecting security barriers along the streets around the convention center, the site of the gathering, on the Allegheny River. Many buildings and shops were closed. Police helicopters buzzed overhead. Most of downtown was to be closed to traffic today and Friday, as were the city’s three rivers.