The US is under pressure from China and the UN to go further in commitments to combat global warming, beyond the emissions cuts outlined in a cap-and-trade bill progressing through Congress.
The landmark Waxman-Markey bill, which has the support of President Obama, was given the green light to proceed to a full vote in the House of Representatives last week. It would mandate a 17 per cent cut in US greenhouse emissions below 2005 levels by 2020, a big advance on what the US was prepared to do under the previous Bush administration.
But UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says it does not go far enough while China has renewed its call on all developed nations to heed scientists’ demands and commit to much tougher cuts of 40 per cent below 1990 levels. China’s high-level policy body, the National Development and Reform Commission, says developed nations should adopt the toughest targets on the table, and commit 0.5 to 1 per cent of their GDP to finance climate change investment in developing countries.
"I appreciate President Obama and his administration taking an active role. Now we need to continue to encourage the United States to do more," Reuters reports Ban saying. He added that international negotiations could not wait for the US Congress to pass a bill through the House and Senate, expected to take most of 2009 if it succeeds at all.
A new global treaty for the post-2012 period is due to be agreed by December at the annual UN climate conference in Copenhagen. A draft negotiating text for those talks, released by the
UNFCCC last week, shows how far apart major economies in the developed and developing world remain, less than seven months from the deadline. Key passages relating to 2020 targets for developed countries include options ranging from steep emissions cuts of 25 to 45 per cent.
The biggest unconditional target commitment offered by developed nations is the European Union’s 20 per cent, and 30 per cent if matched by others. The US Congress bill amounts to only modest cuts below 1990 levels. Other rich nations, like Japan, have yet to nominate any target.
Environment ministers from major economies are further discussing targets at a meeting in Paris this week ahead of the next round of UN negotiations in Bonn in early June. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the US Congress, Nancy Pelosi, is leading a congressional delegation to China this week to discuss
climate change and energy where the targets issue is sure to figure.
Reuters 24/5/09, EurActiv 22/5/09
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