While China may be set to embrace emissions trading to tackle greenhouse gases, delayed action remains the order of the day in the United States and Australia, and at the United Nations.
In the US, Senate majority leader Harry Reid has given up trying to include a cap and trade plan for power plants and renewable energy measures in a new climate and energy bill set to be unveiled next week. That bill will now be a narrow oil-drilling reform proposal.
The Democrats’ attempt to get up a compromise climate bill before the summer break has failed with Reid saying this broader legislative proposal will be put off until September. But there is little chance any contentious bill will proceed in the Fall in the Senate, so close to mid-term congressional elections in early November.
It would seem that Congressional Democrat and White House hopes for comprehensive energy legislation are sunk for 2010, possibly for the rest of the Obama presidency depending on the mid-term outcome. The immediate international implications of this is that the US will probably not go to annual UNFCCC talks in Cancun in December with any substantive progress on domestic commitments to cut carbon emissions. This in turn undermines the chances for progress towards a new global climate agreement.
The UN climate convention, or UNFCCC, appeared to accept the strong chance that a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol may not be ready in time for January 2013 - the end of that treaty’s commitment period.
Following the failure of the Copenhagen climate conference to nail down a comprehensive agreement on global emissions reductions and the fading prospects for any substantial progress this year, the UNFCCC has published a paper acknowledging that time is running out to get and agreement and have it ratified worldwide in time. The paper concedes a gap between agreements might require a contingency plan to extend existing targets on 40 nations for another year or two, or agree new targets among a smaller group than the full 192-state membership of the UNFCCC.
Australia’s new prime minister this week revealed plans for citizens assembly in the next term of government to build support for the nation’s stalled emissions trading scheme. While supporting a price on carbon, Julia Gillard’s policy re-confirms she is sticking to predecessor Rudd’s approach of putting off an ETS start until 2013 at the earliest.
Reports from China yesterday suggested the government was ready to embrace emissions trading in the nation’s next five-year central economic plan.
Reuters 21-22/7/10
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