"I don't want to be over confident, but I'm almost certain that the new president will come (through) on this issue," Stiglitz told a conference in Paris.

"All three of them are very committed to do something and it's a major change in the environmental landscape," he said, referring to White House hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

Stiglitz, a 64-year-old winner of the Nobel economics prize in 2001 and a professor at Columbia University in New York, said he would be backing a Democrat, although he acknowledged climate change was also a big issue for McCain, the Republican Party's likely nominee.

"I'm going to support a Democrat candidate: the policies of the two candidates are not different, there are differences between their personalities but despite intense debates, in many ways they are very close," he said.

"McCain is very concerned too. He was on this issue when it was not a major issue," he added.

Stiglitz, known for his outspokenness and criticism of globalization, is also a former chief economist at the World Bank who resigned in 1999 after accusing rich countries of not doing enough to help the poor.

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