The United States, as the world's biggest polluter, has a special responsibility to help fight global warming and promote conservation, UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan said today.
"The United States, as you probably know, is the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases, largely because it is the world's most successful economy," Mr Annan said in a commencement address at Tuft's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts.
"That makes it especially important for it to join in reducing emissions and in the broader quest for energy efficiency and conservation," he said.
In a speech extending his criticism of President Bush's decision in March to reject the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming, Mr Annan warned that ignoring conservation could damage economic growth around the world.
He added that the international community was in danger of losing hard-won gains in the fight against climate change.
"There is concern throughout the world about the decision of the new administration to oppose the Protocol," Mr Annan said, according to prepared remarks.
Annan has called the Bush administration move "unfortunate" and after coming under intense and widespread criticism about its decision, the United States agreed recently to attend the next round of international talks on climate change in Bonn, Germany in July.
Bush pulled out of the Kyoto pact after criticizing it as faulty and harmful the US economy. The administration also said it was unfair that developing nations were exempt from the first phase of restrictions on emissions of pollutants.
But Mr Annan attacked the assertion that cutting emissions and other conservation measures would hurt economies.
"In fact, the opposite is true: unless we protect resources and the earth's natural capital, we shall not be able to sustain economic growth," he said.