Obama Negotiators Enter Climate Talks Amidst Recession Concerns
The recession may slow proceedings of President Barack Obama’s negotiators at the U.N. climate talks on Sunday, Reuters reported.
The meeting in Bonn from March 29-April 8 will host up to 190 nations working towards an emissions cutting pact due to be agreed upon in December.
Japan, Russia, Ukraine and many other nations have not even set goals for key 2020 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
The mood in Bonn would be helped by U.S. plans for stronger action, according to the U.N.’s climate chief. However, he cautioned against expecting too much from Obama, who is currently concentrated on the economic crisis.
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters that people are very excited to see the U.S. back in talks. Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy for climate change, will head the U.S. delegation during the meetings.
De Boer warned that time was running worryingly short to work out the vastly complex deal. And he suggested that the U.S. representation is coming to the meetings “with their own requirements” in the context of the current political reality.
Michael Zammit Cutajar, the head of a U.N. committee who drafted a 30-page text for Bonn condensing a former 120 pages of ideas for a treaty, ranging from carbon markets to financial aid, said there was still a great deal of work to be done.
As part of the U.N. treaty, President Obama is seeking to cut U.S. emissions by about 15 percent back to 1990 levels by 2020.
Former President George W. Bush foresaw U.S. emissions peaking only in 2025.
During the Bush administration, the U.S. was isolated in opposing the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, the plan for cutting emissions backed by all his industrial allies. U.S. delegates were even booed during a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007.
However, nations throughout the world have set aside climate plans, instead focusing on spending trillions of dollars on rescuing banks and shoring up the sagging world economy. On April 2, a G20 summit in London will test many nations’ commitment to fighting climate change.
Some 15 percent of economic stimulus cash of $2 to $3 trillion will be spent on green projects, such as renewable energies or railways.
Stern said during a speech earlier this month that the seriousness of the climate problem is becoming more stark and disturbing with each passing year and that Washington’s policies would be guided by science, but also set clear limits.
He also added that it was "beyond the realm of the feasible" for the U.S. to make the deepest emissions cuts laid out by the U.N. Climate Panel, of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels.
Increased flooding, droughts, more powerful storms, heatwaves and rising sea levels from heat-trapping gases are being projected as global warming intensifies, according to the U.N. Climate Panel.
The meetings will also focus on promised "comparable" efforts in cuts between developed nations. The European Union has been more ambitious than Washington, promising cuts of 20 percent below 1990 levels.
China, India and other developing nations are expected to curb their rising emissions by promising more efficient power plants and vehicles. Details of a possible registry for such actions will be another topic during the U.N. talks, as poorer nations argue that richer nations should give new finance and clean technology.
Earlier this month, China rejected a U.S. idea of tariffs on some imports from countries that do not place a price on carbon. China is the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter ahead of the United States.
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