Threats to Kyoto Protocol Endanger Copenhagen & Our Climate
Senate
Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee hearings held on the Clean
Energy Jobs and American Power Act last week have built upon the Kerry/Graham
op-ed in the New York Times to provide renewed momentum on domestic
legislation - even if the
party of no continues to childishly obstruct
the process by boycotting committee mark up. Unfortunately, movement in the
Senate is being overshadowed by a deterioration
of negotiations at the global level stemming from concerted attacks by a
handful of countries seeking to kill the Kyoto Protocol and replace it with a
“pledge and review” system.
Pledge and
review in its most general form repeals any notion of a legally binding deal,
allowing countries to instead pledge the level of ambition they deem fit –
rather than that determined by climate science. As if this “race to the
bottom” in terms of emissions targets were not enough of a threat, it also
breaches the
For
their part,
Needless to say, pledge and
review has greatly alienated the developing world since it was announced last
month in Bangkok, creating a toxic negotiating environment that lead to the
walk out of
the African group at the beginning of this week’s negotiations in
The general deterioration of the
international negotiations has led to a
downplay in the expectations for Copenhagen, epitomized by the Danish Prime
Minister’s recent comments that it would likely see a politically,
rather than legally, binding agreement. This was reiterated by U.S. Envoy
Todd Stern in a House Foreign Affairs hearing on a post
To
avoid a complete disaster in
The momentum created by the announcements coming from advanced developing countries like Mexico, Indonesia, India and China and others can not be overstated. In fact, the U.S. is planning a fourth quarter push to ensure that both Chinese president Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are on board for just such a deal. The only question will be whether the administration will reject the Bush era policy of pledge and review and push the U.S. Senate bill creating a “race to the top.” Only then can we answer our children when, in the words of Senator Cardin, they ask us where we were when the world was burning.