Brazil’s Silva criticizes US stance in Copenhagen

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is criticizing the United States for failing to commit to concrete carbon-emissions reductions at the U.N. climate conference in Denmark.

Silva says the U.S. stance at one point prompted several European nations and Japan to reconsider the Kyoto Protocol, which he says would have been “very serious.” Under the Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrial nations were already making modest emissions cuts.

The U.S.-brokered Copenhagen Accord reached Saturday calls for, but does not require emissions reductions.

Commenting during his weekly radio program Monday, Silva warned that all nations will need to keep treating climate change as a priority to reach a definite solution to global warming.