POSSIBLE CHANGE IN COURSE FOR UPCOMING CLIMATE MEETINGS IN COPENHAGEN
News Date November 17, 2009
With the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen only weeks away and climate change legislation in the Senate still wading through the committee process, President Barack Obama may have to wait until next year to fulfill promises of positioning the U.S. as a world leader on the issue. While China and the U.S. are in accord that there is an imminent need for an agreement on climate change, it remains to be seen whether any progress will be made in Denmark next month.
Despite past failure to agree on targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions, the President has high hopes for the upcoming meetings stating, “Our aim there is not a partial accord or a political declaration, but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations and one that has immediate operational effect”.
President Obama has recently come out in support of a proposal offered by Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, which calls for all countries participating in the climate change conference to develop a nonbinding political agreement that declares the need for emission reductions, as well as provides financial aid to developing countries to assist in implementation. Many world leaders believe that it will take commitments from the world’s largest emitters - India, China, and the U.S. - before progress on combating climate change can begin. Ahead of the Copenhagen meetings, several nations have recently made new commitments to greenhouse gas reductions, which include Brazil and South Korea. (By: Ethan Mathews, Contact: David Hickey)