the real deal

US: Global deal must be done by end-2009
by Imelda Abaño/BMirror/12.09.08

POZNAN, Poland—The top US delegate at world climate talks here said on Monday they are ready to lead the way toward an international agreement by the end of 2009.

Harlan Watson, the head of the US delegation, told journalists here that the US “is fully committed to reaching an agreement by 2009 that is environmentally effective and economically sustainable.”

He is also optimistic the new administration under President-elect Barack Obama will return the United States to the center of the global debate on climate change.

Looking toward a possible deal in Copenhagen next December to succeed the Kyoto Protocol that will expire in 2012, Watson said the US will figure out what is achievable within one year given the economic realities.

Earlier, Obama had pledged to bring US output of greenhouse-gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. That’s still above the limit that the world’s biggest economy would have been required to meet by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol, a global-warming treaty the US never ratified. It’s also short of a European Union pledge to cut the gases 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Watson said Obama’s 2020 emissions goal “is possible,” but warned it would not be “cost-free.” He also warned that the incoming Obama administration would be constrained by the economic crisis in offering incentives to countries such as India and China to commit to action to lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

“Whether or not there can be an agreement at the time of Copenhagen remains to be seen, and that would not be easy, but I think there is broad commitment, certainly on the part of the Bush administration,” Watson said.

President Bush has opposed forcing emissions limits on US companies and has been roundly criticized by environmental groups for not doing enough to tackle global warming.

Kyoto sets targets for 37 nations that expire in 2012. Countries in Poznan are discussing new targets for parties to that treaty, and also what action might be taken by the US and large developing countries such as China and India in a new pact.

Under Kyoto, the US would have been required to cut emissions by an average of 7 percent in the 2008-12 measurement period compared with 1990 levels. China and India, as developing countries, weren’t set targets under Kyoto, and reject goals until the developed world first has led the way.

On the other hand, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told UN delegates here that the “green rules and regulations that will help save our planet will also revive our economies.”

There is, the governor said, “far more economic risk in the status quo—wasting energy, burning fossil fuels and destroying forests—than there is in fighting climate change by developing clean, renewable energy and saving forests.”

He added, “States and provinces have long been at the forefront of developing green technologies and protecting our economy so that they are setting great examples for our federal counterparts.”

Delegates from 190 nations have gathered in Poznan at the midpoint of a two-year negotiation that aims to produce a treaty to fight global warming in Copenhagen next December.