"President Hu Jintao has said that climate change is not just an environmental issue but also a development issue, ultimately a development issue."

Mr. Qin noted that China had set an ambitious five-year goal of improving energy efficiency by 20 percent.

"As a developing country that's growing rapidly and has a big population, to thoroughly transform the energy structure and use clean energy would need a lot of money," Mr. Qin said.

Gore narrated an hourlong slide presentation with graphic evidence of global warming: Antarctic ice shelves cracking and collapsing into the sea, before-and-after shots of glaciers reduced to lakes and small patches of ice, and forecasts of heavily populated land masses such as Florida shrinking drastically if glacial meltdown reaches a worst-case scenario and floods the seas.

"Never before has all of civilization been threatened," Gore said.

"We have everything we need to save it, with the possible exception of political will. But political will is a renewable resource," Gore said.

Gore also was nominated this week in Spain to receive an international cooperation award from a foundation named for Crown Prince Felipe.

1

2