Schwarzenegger Against Climate Change

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UNITED NATIONS, Sep 24 (Reuters) - Rich and poor nations must get over their disagreements about how to fight climate change and forge a new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will say today.

Speaking at a United Nations conference on global warming, Schwarzenegger will urge countries to stop blaming each other for rising temperatures and work together to resolve the problem.

''The current stalemate between the developed and the developing worlds must be broken,'' Schwarzenegger will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. ''It is time we came together in a new international agreement that can be embraced by rich and poor nations alike.'' The Kyoto treaty requires 36 industrial nations to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012, when the protocol runs out.

President George W Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto accord, saying it unfairly burdened rich countries while exempting developing countries like China and India.

Developing nations say rich states built up their economies without emissions restraints and argue that less-developed countries should have the same opportunity to establish their economies now.

But as emissions from developing nations such as China and India grow, environmentalists say action by the developed world alone will not be enough to stop the warming trend.

Schwarzenegger, who has endorsed a series of measures to reduce emissions in California, acknowledged that rich and poor nations have different responsibilities in fighting climate change, but said it was time to stop the blame game.

''The time has come to stop looking back at the Kyoto Protocol,'' he will say. ''The consequences of global climate change are so pressing ... it doesn't matter who was responsible for the past. What matters is who is answerable for the future. And that means all of us.'' UN climate change negotiations will take place in December in Bali, where negotiators will try to start forging a way to cut emissions after Kyoto expires.