09/24/2009
President Obama is heading into a series of meetings with world leaders under growing pressure to deliver on his promise of strong action on climate change. More than 100 world leaders, including Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, met Tuesday at the 64th UN Assembly to talk about fighting climate change – in a prelude to the Pittsburgh Group of 20 meetings that starts Thursday.
The UN General Assembly comes at a time when several big issues are on its agenda, including climate-change rules. While much talk will be about the environment, the substance will be about money. Poor nations say that if rich nations want them to stop burning coal or cutting down forests, they should be willing to pay. Last week, European Union leaders called on rich countries to provide at least $7.3 billion next year to help poor nations tackle climate change. They estimated as much as $147 billion per year might be needed for poor countries each year by 2020.
Big differences also remain between the US and Europe on issues such as how quickly rich countries should have to cut their emissions over the next decade or so. While the EU has pledged to cut its emissions by at least 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 — and to increase that reduction to 30 percent if other major emitters do the same — the most aggressive proposal in Congress to curb US emissions calls for a 4 percent reduction beneath 1990 levels by 2020.
EU ambassador to the US called on the US to act, warning a deal at Copenhagen might be made more difficult if the US Congress does not pass a climate change bill this year. Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) recently called the House-passed climate-change bill to reduce greenhouse gases deeply flawed and said she was not going to support similar legislation in the Senate. She noted that the House bill would not create jobs, strengthen the US economy or reduce reliance on oil imports but was certain to raise energy prices.
The White House continues to seek a climate-change bill before the UN conference in Copenhagen in December. However, a growing number of observers continue to believe this issue will not be settled until 2010 or even until after the November 2010 elections…if then.
The climate change legislation is closely intertwined with ongoing US political debates on the new proposed Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) and ultimately the expanded use of renewable fuels in the US economy.