.-(cc_nonderived)%26hl%3Den&ei=BVixSqfvMI_S8QbqlJ2lDA)
TARDY TREATY: Todd Stern, Special Envoy for Climate Change, says that negotiations in Copenhangen could be stalled if Congress cannot agree on climate legislation.
Image: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
President Obama's top climate diplomat acknowledged today that Capitol Hill delays over global warming legislation will likely push international negotiations to work beyond a December summit in Copenhagen on a new treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
"I think that we'll shape the thing to get as much done as can be done, and there are some pieces that need to get completed," Todd Stern, the State Department's climate envoy, told reporters. "But I think the mission is to get the most ambitious, most far-reaching accord that we can in Copenhagen, and to the extent there's some things that need to be completed after that, then that will happen."
Stern did not go into specifics about what items will be left for diplomats beyond December. But the diplomat said he agreed with U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer, who earlier this summer made a similar assessment that the Copenhagen negotiations won't be the end-all on a global warming treaty that applies to more than 190 nations.
According to the U.N. Web site, additional climate talks are scheduled for May and November 2010 -- though more negotiations are likely to be scheduled should diplomats fail to make enough headway at the end of this year in Copenhagen.
The prospects for sealing a deal in Copenhagen hinge in large part on how much the United States and China -- the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases -- can agree on leading into the Dec. 7-18 negotiations. President Obama will head to Beijing in mid-November amid expectations the two countries may be ready to unveil some type of bilateral agreement on emission reductions and low-carbon energy technologies.
Obama also is planning to speak Tuesday at the United Nations during a special summit on climate change as diplomats look to kick-start talks that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week are stalled.
"We are deeply concerned that the negotiation is not making much headway," Ban told the Guardian newspaper today. "It is absolutely and crucially important for the leaders to demonstrate their political will, leadership and to give clear political guidelines to the negotiators. They should be responsible for the future of this entire humanity."
Speaking today at a Washington forum hosted by The Atlantic magazine, Stern complained about the political fights in Congress in trying to pass cap-and-trade legislation, saying the status quo would hinder U.S. businesses' ability to keep up with their competition.
"We're going to spend the next five years pushing China and all the years after that chasing him if we stay where we are," Stern said. "The competitive threat to the United States is not that there is a modest price on carbon imposed in the context of cap-and-trade allowances. That is not the threat. That's modest, and to the extent that there are trade-exposed industries, that can be dealt with. That's not the threat."
"The threat," Stern added, "is we just stay in this ridiculous ideological box where people are just baldly playing politics with it or taking a know-nothing approach and saying the science that's clear enough isn't clear."
Some Obama officials had wanted Congress to send the president a cap-and-trade bill for signature by December, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday said the legislation may need to be punted into 2010 because of a packed agenda that includes health care and Wall Street regulatory reform. A Reid spokesman later walked back from that assessment, saying the goal is still to try to debate the bill this year.
See what we're tweeting about
10 Comments
Add CommentB$
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAmazing. And I thought Bush & Cheney were the only obstacle on GW action.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe science is not only no clear enough, it is non-existent. There is no evidence that CO2 is anything but a minor climate forcer. 'Average global" temperatures are static, Antarctic ice at record level, Arctic ice at long term average and this hysteria just does not stop.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is very sad that the only thing stopping this rapid and total descent into an Age of Stupidity and Darkness, Ignorance and Superstition is the US Senate.
These silly tax schemes are like wind and solar - simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There is no green option that would be able to make a dint in GHG's without massive political intervention. Without alternatives Industry will just have to pay the tax.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA gigawatt a day is needed and only mass produced nuclear with some sort politically driven Man on the moon kind of effort can deliver.
When sparsely populated resource rich countries start protesting about their comparative non-liability towards global warming by their own kind, it is time that the consequences of their monopoly driven exports be not B$'d away yet again. Even if we could build wireless thermal bridges to source and sink heat to where it's needed, would Mr. Dole as a politician be less absent from this CO2 and methane policy making debate, right now when it matters?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's funny that on all these blogs you can find people arguing over whether humans are and to what extent they are contributing to climate change. Does anybody know where you can find raw data about average yearly temperatures over time, CO2 concentrations, etc. Also it would also be interesing to find some articles about the mathematical methods were used to establish the link between CO2 emissions and climate change.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAccording to research I have read, the overall global temperature is actually cooling. There is not proof that the temperature is increasing, except for the pathetic commercials of polar bears on an ice float. One should really point out that there is a constant fluctuation of ice in the north. There are naturally times when there is no, or very little, ice. The polar bear population is growing. "Global Warming" is an issue, but not the most pressing concern. It is simply a hot subject, no pun intended, and a quick money-maker. Almost everybody had heard of some type of global warming issue and are therefore more likely to contribute to the "cause." What about deforestation? Famine? Genocide? What about issues that have been around longer and will be around long after the global warming schtick has passed. Also, computer models are only so accurate, scientists, and certainly not Al Gore, have no idea as to what will happen in the natural world in the next 10-20 years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBoy the nut jobs have really taken over here. Anyone who thinks the earth is cooling is delusional. They are start to ship though the arctic ocean this yr so yes the ice is far less than it use to be.
Plant, animal life has moved 200 miles north in the last 50 yrs. Winter is shorter, summer longer, flowers bloom earlier, crop ripen earlier, even getting 2 crops where they use to only be able to do 1.
So the temp has not risen much in the last couple yrs, that still doesn't mean we are not hotter than ever. It's just a pause before it goes higher.
Here in Fla islands are shrinking and some have disappeared.
Also since when does using less energy cost more money? If the real costs of fossil fuels were in them not even including GW/CO2, the RE would be far less expensive but since we subsidize oil with 1/4 of the US budget for Persian Gulf military and oil wars plus $500B for imported oil supporting Iran Russia, oil dictators bleeding our wealth, jobs here, you rightwingers are traitors support our enemies. Why?
As far as GW we are already cutting CO2 for monetary reasons as it costs less. In fact we have cut oil use by 15%,coal use by 15% and are reforesting much farm, clear cut lands so already doing our part. And it has saved us money, not cost it.
Again the utter nonsense of the "real" cost of fossil fuels. The current wars in the Middle East are not "oil wars". The real cost of oil is pretty much being paid at the pump - although it's probably a bit less because of all the taxes being applied.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, the environmentalist nut jobs are even more irate about domestic coal. There are no wars being fought over coal. We have plenty of it. It is the best fuel to power our future, along with domestic gas and nuclear.
Islands in Florida are shrinking and disappearing! OMG! Well, the one constant on earth is change. Get used to it, because your hero democratic politicians are not going to do anything substantive on CO2 emissions at the end of the day. Unless they can figure out a way for the rich to buy the more expensive energy produced from renewables so the middle class doesn't have to pay an extra dime.
And, I have my own anectdotal evidence to counter your disappearing island tale. In the northern U.S. this summer (after an unusually cold winter), we've been wearing our jackets most of the summer. Normally I run my air conditioner for 2.5 months in the summer. This summer - about 10 days.
THe best two books on climate change, historical global temperatures and the models used to predict temperatures are "heaven+earth" by Ian Plimer (Australia's best known geologist) and "The Climate Caper" by Garth Paltrdige (an atmospheric physicist.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSadly there are no highly reliable measures of temperature spanning more than modest recetn periods. As Porf Paltridge points out, the most critical temperature is that at the very top of the atmosphere....but unfortunately for him and his colleagues the balloon-born equipment are least reliable at the top of the atmosphere....and the satellite measurements are least accurate...you guessed it...at the top of the atmosphere.
Of course that is a common story in science - the data you want is the most difficult to obtain or most variable.
But valiant efforts are bein made to deal with this problem. Read the books and discover the controversy ...but please always be mindful that people working in the area ...on both sides of the argument...are all doing their best under difficult circumstances.