President Klaus questions need to address climate change

Addressing a UN conference on climate change in New York President Klaus questioned the need for immediate action on global warming. He said that the degree of global warming over the past years, decades and centuries was negligible in the historical perspective and argued that it was not even proven that human activity had caused it. He argued that the international community was under the sway of ambitious environmentalists who promoted their "highly speculative hypothesis" to justify curtailing personal freedom and economic growth but who in actual fact had very little proof to support their claims. The president's words have evoked concern back in Prague where politicians fear that Mr. Klaus' singular opinions on climate change might harm the Czech Republic's chances of gaining a seat on the UN Security Council. The environment minister, Martin Bursik, stressed that the Czech president was not speaking on behalf of the Czech government and environment groups have described Mr. Klaus' views as totally misguided.