Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore lent his charm and knowledge Friday to call for strong commitment and action ahead of the closing of the Poznan climate change talks in Poland.

In his speech, Gore said the negotiators must stick to scientific facts to convince doubters.

“We can’t negotiate the facts. We can’t negotiate the truth about the situation. And for those who are too fearful to finish, it can be done and must be done. Make sure we succeed,” he said.

The former U.S. vice president and chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection said scientists had warned that the world was dangerously close to a so called point of no return, referring to irrevocable damage to the climate, which he said could come within 10 years.

“Simply put, it would be wrong for this generation to destroy the habitability of our planet. We should think about our future generation; they have the right. That realization must carry us forward.”

The climate change conference, attended by 145 environment ministers, was held amid the worse economic crisis in half a century, and during a U.S. period of political transition that has seen the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases unwilling to discuss ratifying new climate polices.

The Poznan talks is the half-way point in the negotiations on an ambitious international response to climate change that will be concluded and ratified in Copenhagen next year and enacted in 2013, following the expiration of the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Poland had suggested the outcome of the conference should be called the Poznan Solidarity Partnership but no further details have since been released.

Activists accused the two-week negotiations of failing to live up to expectations.

Friends of the Earth International criticized big-emitter countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States for not committing to greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

“Industrialized countries are failing to live up to their historical and current responsibilities by not committing to steep, immediate binding emission reduction targets. Many are trying to deflect blame on to major developing nations,” said Meena Raman of the Friends of the Earth Malaysia.

The climate change treaty sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 5 percent against 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012.

The group also said some rich countries had ignored the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in certain deforestation negotiations.

“We’re outraged that Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada deleted language on the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in a key decision on deforestation,” it said.

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