Negotiators at a major global climate summit in Bali say they’re close to reaching a compromise. Talks have stalled this week over the Bush administration’s rejection of several key provisions, including a pledge to cut emissions levels up to 40 percent by 2020. Observers expect a weak compromise deal if White House objections stand. The final day of talks follows increasing criticism of the US. On Thursday, former Vice President Al Gore drew wide applause from the Bali conference when he called the Bush administration the main obstacle to an agreement.

Al Gore: “I am going to speak an inconvenient truth. My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali… And it really is up to you. I don’t know how to tell you how you can find the grace to navigate around this enormous obstacle, this elephant in the room that I’ve just been undiplomatic enough to name.”

European Union nations have vowed to boycott a US-backed climate summit in Hawaii next month over the Bush administration’s stance. The Honolulu gathering of industrialized nations is part of a process organized by the White House to sidestep the UN. Portugal environmental minister Humberto Rosa said the meeting would be pointless if the Bali talks fail.

Portugal environmental minister Humberto Rosa: “If we would have a failure in Bali, it would be meaningless to have the major economies meeting, which has been agreed that is to look also to what happened to the Bali road map. So, without the road map and without the destination, the Commission said it would be senseless.”

The Bali meeting is convening to reach a new to deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. The US is the only industrialized nation to reject Kyoto, which requires a modest five percent reduction below 1990 levels by the year 2012. The Bush administration has also rejected proposals that would provide financial support to poorer countries most affected by climate change. Professor Richard Odingo of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the stance could have devastating effects for Africa.

Professor Richard Odingo: “If you look at the temperature projections, nobody can stand a temperature increase of five degrees centigrade, which we are projecting. And when they arrive, the future will be so uncomfortable, people will be running away from Africa. And the European powers, for example, they don’t want Africans to go to Europe now to look for jobs, but this will happen more and more. We’ll have environmental refugees.”