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Flashback: Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | They call it cap and trade, but it’s just another fuel tax | Quebec, Ontario sign historic climate pact | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change

Update (2009/11/24): That’s a quick reversal, even for Obama: US to go to Copenhagen summit with proposed target on carbon emissions

David Adam, Jonathan Watts and Patrick Wintour, The Guardian
November 15, 2009

Brown still hopes to salvage climate talks as US rules out binding targets

Barack Obama acknowledged today that time had run out to secure a legally binding climate deal at the Copenhagen summit in December and threw his support behind plans to delay a formal pact until next year at the earliest.

During a hastily convened meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from next month’s meeting by aiming to make it a first-stage series of commitments rather than an all-encompassing protocol.

Postponing many contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer until the second-stage, leaders will instead try to reach a political agreement in Copenhagen that sends a strong message of intent.

While this falls short of hopes that the meeting would lock in place a global action plan to replace the Kyoto protocol, it recognises the lack of progress in recent preparatory talks and the hold-ups of climate legislation in the US Senate.

Michael Froman, US deputy national security adviser for economic affairs, said: “There was a realistic assessment … by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days.”

Britain’s climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, tried to put a brave face on Obama’s move, insisting it is still possible to reach a broad political agreement on carbon emissions targets, but senior Labour MPs admitted they feared the necessary momentum for a detailed agreement would be sucked from the Copenhagen event if politicians know a deal has been postponed to the next scheduled meeting in Mexico City next year.

Gordon Brown had pledged to go to Copenhagen to help broker a deal, insisting there could be no plan B. Miliband again todayurged Obama to attend.

There will now be intense discussions on whether the political agreement at Copenhagen contains any detailed meaningful commitments.

Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the host and chairman of the climate talks, flew overnight to Singapore to pitch the deferral plan to 19 leaders, including Obama and China’s president, Hu Jintao, at an unscheduled event during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. He insisted that the Copenhagen talks could still set political targets and outline commitments.

“Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not,” Rasmussen told the leaders. “The Copenhagen agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion.”

Obama spoke in support of the proposal, cautioning the group not to let the “perfect be the enemy of the good”, Froman said.

The proposal by Denmark would buy time for the US Senate to pass carbon-capping legislation, allowing the Obama administration to bring a 2020 target and financing pledges to the table at a UN climate meeting in mid-2010.

But there are many other divisions between developed and developing nations that could prolong talks. It was unclear if China, the world’s biggest emitter, and other developing countries supported the two-stage plan.

The level of international support may be clearer at a meeting on Monday of about 40 environment ministers in Copenhagen. Other governments said there was little choice. “Leaders were clear in their view that the current officials-led process is running into all sorts of difficulties, and therefore it is time for leaders, politically, to step in,” Australia’s prime minister, Kevin Rudd, told reporters after the meeting with Rasmussen. “It’s going to be tough as all hell, but let me tell you I believe everyone is seeking, right now, to put their best foot forward.”

The development casts new significance on the summit in Beijing tomorrowbetween Obama and Hu.

According to the UK government’s former chief scientist Sir David King, these talks are the best chance for the world to agree a new deal. “Once Hu Jintao and Obama agree, I think the rest of the world could fall into place,” he told the Guardian. “It’s a head of state issue. Obama, through an agreement with Hu Jintao, could be able to deal with some of the concerns of the American population.”

Sources close to the US-China talks are playing down the chances of a public breakthrough, saying only modest progress may be announced, in the area of clean technology cooperation. But signs of collaboration could unblock the logjam in the Senate and in international talks.

“Copenhagen has come a year too early. There was no way Obama could get this together for December this year,” said King. Chinese negotiators have been saying much the same thing in private.

US officials are anxious about the timing of a likely announcement from China on its first carbon intensity target, thought to be around 40% to 45%reductions relative to economic growth by 2020. Although not internationally binding, a Chinese move could see the Obama administration blamed for a lack of progress.

The extension is not unexpected given the downbeat statements by world leaders in recent weeks. But the delay has frustrated those who feel time is running out. “Heads of states must go beyond simply discussing the problems. They have to start solving them,” said Diane McFadzien of the Worldwide Fund for Nature.”

Source | See also under Environment: Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Plant experts unveil DNA barcode | UK University student fined £80 for dropping matchstick on Oxford pavement | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Big Oil makes case for carbon-capture subsidies | Canada commits to continental wilderness deal | UK: Two-year-olds at risk from ‘gender-bending’ chemicals, report says | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Court upholds aboriginal fishing rights on Vancouver Island | Can we manipulate the weather? | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | US puts climate debate on hold for five weeks despite plea by Merkel | Al Gore Set To Become First “Carbon Billionaire” | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | Chinese media claims Beijing snow ‘artificially induced’ | Final round for UN climate talks open in Barcelona | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Exaggerated claims undermine drive to cut emissions, scientists warn | Canada sets aside its boreal forest as giant carbon vault | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Canada’s flax crop mysteriously contaminated by GM seeds | Protesters disrupting question period detained and bloodied by hill security | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | UK: A bedtime story about drowning kittens and puppies… Labour’s £6m campaign to highlight the dangers of climate change | Pass climate bill before UN summit, Layton says | Britain will starve without GM crops, says major report | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | IPCC Crushes Scientific Objectivity, 91-0 | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | It is too late to shut the door on GM foods | Water demand puts Canadian rivers at risk | What happened to global warming? | IPCC case for global warming melts on multiple fronts | More defects, exclusions in key climate warming data are uncovered | UK: Garbage spies alarm neighbourhood | Ont. gives green energy price guarantee | Climate change complacency `global suicide pact,’ UN told | UN plans ’shock therapy’ for world leaders at Copenhagen summit | Washington Post Meteorologist: A Skeptical Take on Global Warming | Sarkozy launches carbon tax to help ’save the human race’ | UN chief warns of climate-related disaster | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | Baby emissions fuel global warming | Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites | Aging Shanghai pushes for more babies | Warming oceans mean less cloud cover | Global Warming or Global Cooling? A New Trend in Climate Alarmism | Counterpoint: Climate skepticism for beginners | Ontario to subsidize electric cars as auto-sector boost | UK Ecotowns to get go-ahead despite local opposition | Obama Science Advisor Called For “Planetary Regime” To Enforce Totalitarian Population Control Measures | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | Canada to match U.S. climate change rules | E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming | Polar bear expert barred from conference by global warming advocates | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Chemical ban targets toys, rubber duckies | Rutgers Professor Warns Geoengineering Could “Create Disasters,” Global Famine | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Black ooze at old Cold War station frightens Labrador town | Canada, U.S. will renegotiate Great Lakes water treaty | US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive | Prentice tables bill to expand NWT park under UNESCO | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Genetically modified monkeys pass traits to offspring | Bee population feels sting of cold, parasites as N.B. population drops | Toronto council approves stringent green-roof rules | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | Meet – and eat – the modified Atlantic salmon | ‘Smart meters’ set to boost prices, track your power consumption by time of day in Toronto | Bee expert takes issue with dated UN data minimizing honeybee deaths | Researchers working on swine flu ‘vaccine corn’ | Global warming alarmists out in cold | Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Toronto: New bin regime spawns new rules, confusion for avid recyclers | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | David Attenborough becomes patron for population reduction | Carbon tax resurfaces in Liberal policy proposal | Nature, not just man, to blame for global warming: scientists | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | UK population must fall to 30m: Optimum Population Trust | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Changes to law could affect navigation of Canadian waters, critics say | Scientists warn global warming accelerating | Terence Corcoran: Ontario’s green energy plan sneaks in feed-in taxes | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Gordon Brown’s amazing patent cure-all globalization deal | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | Doomsday seed vault’s stores are growing | Genetically Modified Seeds: Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach | Google to enter market for energy use tracking | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change | Canadian, U.S. energy policies to be inextricably linked: Prentice | As in Canada, gender-bending chemicals in UK rivers grow more potent | UK Slips New Garbage Bin Taxes into Climate Bill | Obama to visit Canada, Tories to propose ‘integrated carbon market’ | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic | Detroit granted water extraction exemption due to ‘historical precedent’ | Chemicals feminizing males, study suggests | Major report to reveal male gender under threat from pollutants | GM Crops Climb to Nearly One-Tenth of Global Crop Production | Toronto council approves plastic bag charge, bottle ban | UN Climate Change Conference open with call for ‘co-operation’ | Genetically engineered meal close to your table | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record | Harper ready to harmonize with U.S. on climate change | CBC broadcasts “The Disappearing Male”, an expose of hormone-disrupting plastics | Harper Govt. to push North American carbon market plan with Obama | The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops | Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production | UN announces green ‘New Deal’ plan to rescue world economies | UN: financial crisis must not stop climate change action | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Bayer on defensive in bee deaths | Shun meat, says UN climate chief | Bilderberg-connected Desmarais dynasty thinktank supports exporting Canada’s water | Sensitive government document found on rainy Ottawa street | GM crops could lead to ‘disaster’: Prince Charles | Climate hysterics v heretics in an age of unreason | Pesticides, pollutants threaten Canadian tap water, researchers suggest | 40,000 sq km to be signed over to UNESCO | Population control thinktank to Britons: Have less children | Water pact will deplete Great Lakes, expert fears | Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | American thinktanks sowed seeds of food crisis | Canada expanding parkland at ‘extraordinary’ pace | China wages war on Olympic weather | Ontario places vast boreal area under protection, 22% of province off limits to development | Get set – the future starts now | Canada’s made in America energy policy | Manitoba’s boreal forest touted for UNESCO status | Sludge biosolids decried as ‘toxic stew’, used as fertilizer | Sarkozy urges climate change action on first day as EU president | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | Today’s suburbs, tomorrow’s slums? | Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser | Agribusiness positions GM crops as panacea to predicted global food shortage | Oil, oil everywhere? Well, just maybe | Dion begins selling green plan | Lakes across Canada face being turned into mine dump sites | Road tolls, a bitter pill that works | They call it cap and trade, but it’s just another fuel tax | World has enough oil reserves, says BP boss | House of Commons adopts Layton’s Kyoto Plus bill | Monsanto Plans to Save World with its Biotech Crops | Quebec, Ontario sign historic climate pact | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | Beware thirsty Americans, Kennedy tells Canada | The tiny, useful particle that could also be a health problem | Dion begins selling carbon plan | Time has come to put ‘price on waste and pollution’: Dion | Man-made clouds to change the sky | Is it time for toll roads? | Bin Brother is watching you | Scientist who claimed GM crops could solve Third World hunger admits he got it wrong | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change | Vancouver to import road tolls from UK | UK proposes national road tolls to cut congestion | Technology Exists to Redirect Hurricanes, Naval Physicist Says | Weather War? | NASA Funds Sci-Fi Weather Control Technology | Motorists to pay London toll

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