As leaders in Washington obsess about the fiscal cliff, President
Barack Obama is putting in place the building blocks for a climate
treaty requiring the first fossil-fuel emissions cuts from both the U.S.
and China.
State Department envoy Todd Stern is in Doha, Qatar,
this week working to clear the path for an international agreement by
2015. Though Obama failed to deliver on his promise to start a
cap-and-trade program in his first term, he is working on policies that
may help cut greenhouse gases 17% in 2020 in the U.S., historically the
world's biggest polluter.
Obama has moved forward with
greenhouse-gas rules for vehicles and new power plants, appliance
standards and investment in low-emitting energy sources. He also has
called for 80% of U.S. electricity to come from clean energy sources,
including nuclear and natural gas, by 2035.
"The president is
laying the foundations for real action on climate change," Jake Schmidt,
who follows international climate policy for the Washington-based
Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview in Doha.
"Whether or not he decides to jump feet first into the international
arena, we'll see."
Envoys from more than 190 nations are entering
their second week of talks today at the United Nations conference
working toward a global warming treaty. Their ambition is to agree to a
pact in 2015 that would take force in 2020. It would supersede limits on
emissions for industrial nations under the Kyoto Protocol, which the
U.S. never ratified.
Obama's push is being pursued without fanfare
as the administration and Congress grapple to avert a budget crisis and
$607 billion in automatic spending cuts. Unlike 2009, when Obama failed
to prevent the collapse of climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, the
U.S. can point to more concrete actions it's taking to fight global
warming.
Obama has more ammunition at hand. The Environmental
Protection Agency is required under the Clean Air Act to move ahead with
regulations on emissions from existing power plants. Those are
responsible for about a third of U.S. emissions, the largest chunk.
Measures
such as those, along with continued low natural gas prices and state
actions, can cut emissions 16.3% by 2020, research firm Resources for
the Future estimates. Emissions already are down 8.8% from 2005 levels,
according to Jonathan Pershing, a State Department negotiator in Doha.
"The
U.S. is in a much stronger position going into the Doha talks despite
failure of Congress to pass comprehensive climate legislation," said
Trevor Houser, a former U.S. climate negotiator who served during the
Copenhagen meeting. "For countries like China that were able to hide
behind a perception of U.S. inaction, the fact that U.S. emissions are
falling helps increase pressure. It takes away the excuse that action is
stalled because of the U.S."
A summer of extreme weather also is
supporting the U.S. delegation in the talks by raising public awareness
and concern about the risks of climate change, Pershing said last week
in Doha. So far this year, superstorm Sandy devastated the East Coast
while wildfires raged in the west and a record drought wrecked crops in
the Midwest.
"The combination of those events is certainly
changing the minds of Americans and making clear to people at home the
consequences of the increased growth in emissions," he said at a Nov. 26
news conference in Doha.
The portion of Americans who say climate
change will affect them a "great deal" or by a "moderate" amount rose
by 13 percentage points to 42% from March to September, according to a
poll by Yale University and George Mason University.
No comments:
Post a Comment