Washington: United States President George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated on Sunday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress.

European ministers, diplomats and officials attending the Washington conference were scathing, particularly in private, over Mr Bush’s failure once again to commit to binding action on climate change.

Although the U.S. and Britain have been at odds over the environment since the early days of the Bush administration, the gap has never been as wide as on Sunday.

Britain, Germany, France, and almost all other European countries want mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. Mr Bush, while talking about a “new approach” and “a historic undertaking”, remains totally opposed.

The conference, attended by more than 20 countries, including China, India, Britain, France and Germany, broke up with the U.S. isolated, according to non-Americans attending.

One of those present said even China and India, two of the biggest polluters, accepted that the voluntary approach proposed by the U.S. was untenable and favoured binding measures, even though they disagreed with the Europeans over how this would be achieved.

A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major U.N. conference on climate change in Bali in December.

“It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade,” the diplomat said. “I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure.”

John Ashton, Britain’s special envoy on climate change, who attended the conference, said: “It is striking here how isolated the U.S. has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialised countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of voluntary commitments.

“The most inspiring example of leadership this week was the speech on Monday at the U.N. by Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

The Governor of California is already putting into action in the state policies to reduce carbon emissions.

Other European governments expressed similar sentiments. Although many of those attending had predicted the conference would break up without significant agreement, there had been hopes that Mr Bush, in search of a legacy, might produce a surprise. Instead, he stuck to his previous position, shunning mandatory caps in favour of clean coal, nuclear power and developing clean energy technology.

In contrast with the early years of his presidency when he expressed scepticism about climate change and whether humans were responsible, Mr Bush acknowledged “energy security and climate change are two of the great challenges of our time. The United States takes these challenges seriously.”

Elizabeth Bast, of Friends of the Earth, described the conference as a diversion. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007