The Senate's top critic of legislation on climate change on Thursday told the Copenhagen summit that the United States will not take action, calling the issue a concern for the "Hollywood elite."
Senator James Inhofe flew to the Danish capital for a visit of just two hours in between votes in Washington, hoping to undercut President Barack Obama's pledges to take a leadership role on climate.
"We're not going to be passing a climate change bill," Inhofe said in a sometimes combative interaction with reporters.
"The ones who really grab ahold of this in the United States are the Hollywood elites," said the Oklahoma senator, the top member of the minority Republican party on a key committee addressing global warming.
Senator John Kerry, a top ally of Obama, visited the 194-nation summit Wednesday and voiced confidence the United States would approve its first national plan to reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change.
Inhofe said that Kerry "misled" the summit and feared Obama would do likewise when he comes to its finale on Friday.
The summit has been bogged down in disputes between wealthy and developing nations, which are seeking billions of dollars in aid to help them cope with the ravages of climate change.
"Why would we in the United States give something to China to help them to meet certain goals when they own 800 billion dollars of our debt? It just doesn't make sense," Inhofe said.
Inhofe was a close partner of former president George W. Bush, a vociferous critic of the current Kyoto Protocol which the Republicans argue is unfair by making no demands of emerging economies whose emissions are rising.
Obama plans to tell the summit that the United States will cut carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020 off 2005 levels, in line with legislation that squeaked through the House of Representatives in June but is pending in the Senate.
However, Obama's pledges are well below those made by the European Union and Japan and the recommendations of UN scientists.
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