NEW YORK — Al Gore, the former US vice-president, on Wednesday called for a ‘Marshall plan’ to make job creation and measures to address climate change compatible and urged President George W. Bush to commit to mandatory cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. ‘This is an emergency,’ Mr Gore told the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative. ‘I think that the key to fighting global poverty is to have the wealthy nations and the developing nations join together to reduce global warming ¦ I think what we need is a global Marshall plan to make the creation of jobs around the reduction of carbon the central principle for how we develop this.’ Mr Gore said Mr Bush should follow the example of former US president Ronald Reagan, who after an initial delay responded to the 1985 discovery of a hole in the ozone layer by supporting a marked reduction in chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. ‘We have to have a binding reduction on carbon,” he said. Robert Zoellick, the head of the World Bank, sounded a sceptical note on the developing world’s ability and desire to reduce carbon emissions, however. Poorer countries are worried aid is going to […]