In Washington, D.C., dozens of protesters gathered outside a Bush administration-sponsored meeting of world leaders on climate change. The meeting comes just days after President Bush skipped a major global warming summit at the U.N. General Assembly. The White House says it’s holding its own gathering so leading polluters can set individual voluntary emissions goals. Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando denounced Bush’s stance.

Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando: “Instead of denying global warming anymore, he wants to put together this lie that he’s doing something about global warming. He’s calling it voluntary. He’s saying there’s going to be no mandatory reductions of global warming pollution, but somehow that will solve it. It’s a lie, and it’s a fraud. And the American people need to know that. People around the world need to know that George Bush doesn’t speak for we Americans.”

Also at the rally was the environmental activist Ted Glick of Chesapeake Climate Action. He’s on the 24th day of a hunger strike protesting the U.S. stance on global warming.

Ted Glick: “And then we have this conference on top of that, this sham conference that is a slap in the face to the nations of the world. There was a conference at the United Nations two days ago about coming up with a stronger international treaty, and then George Bush calls this conference to try to obstruct, to disrupt and to move the wrong way on global warming.”

The U.S.-sponsored climate meeting continues today.