Wangari Maathai and Former President Clinton.

Former President Bill Clinton joined the panel to discuss the threat of global warming and whether the USA, as the world’s largest economy and one of its biggest polluters, should be setting a better example.

Where as President Bush told a conference in Washington that each country must set its own climate-change targets, former President Clinton struck a different note during the debate, saying the US government had not caught up with public opinion on the issue:

'No-one in America thinks you will lose office any more because of this. We've moved a long way - the public is ahead of the national government here   Former President Clinton

'This is more of a voting issue in America than ever before. But when Al Gore and I concluded the Kyoto treaty, there were large numbers of people in the Senate who thought it would get you beat for supporting climate action.

'No-one in America thinks you will lose office any more because of this. We've moved a long way - the public is ahead of the national government here, the mayors and the governors are ahead.

'There is enormous consensus in this country for aggressive action and a real commitment to do it.'

We are playing Russian roulette with their [our children’s] future.   Former President Clinton

Setting the standard

Clinton called for the USA to take the lead on a successor to Kyoto:

'Most people love their children and their grandchildren and you have to tell them that we are playing Russian roulette with their future unless we do something about it.

'If we do this properly [tackle climate change] it is not an economic burden, it is an enormous economic opportunity. We need a serious co-ordinated combined effort on climate change.

If we do this properly [tackle climate change] it is not an economic burden, it is an enormous economic opportunity.   Former President Clinton

'If we don’t bring in the Indians, the Chinese and the Russians, then the planet will warm too fast anyway and we will have the worst consequences, but we’ll never do it unless we set the standard.'

Other panel members included the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, Chairman and CEO of DuPont, Chad Holliday, and Founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai.

This programme was chaired by Zeinab Badawi and broadcast worldwide.

The programme was produced in partnership with BBC World television and is funded in part by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).

Transmission times

Saturday 29th September at 1210 GMT
Repeated: Saturday 29th September at 1910 and Sunday 30th September at 0110, 0710 and 1710 GMT