statism watch

Flashback: Copenhagen climate talks: No deal, we’re out of time, Obama warns | 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 | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | UN plans ’shock therapy’ for world leaders at Copenhagen summit | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | 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 | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | 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 | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change | 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

BBC News
November 25, 2009

President Barack Obama is to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the US in several stages, beginning with a 17% cut by 2020, the White House has said.

The offer will be made at December’s UN climate talks in Copenhagen, which Mr Obama will attend.

But he does not plan to be there for the crucial last days, when delegates including other world leaders are hoping to pull together a deal.

The talks aim to draw up a new treaty to supplant the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said his attendance could be vital for a deal.

“It’s critical that President Obama attends the climate change summit in Copenhagen,” he told journalists.

The cuts Mr Obama has proposed are similar to those included in a bill passed by the US House of Representatives in June.

But with legislation currently stuck in the Senate, correspondents say the president will be unable to commit to any of the figures he is proposing at the summit.

So far more than 60 world leaders have said they will attend.

Observers say the presence of such figures as Mr Obama will raise hopes for action on climate change, although the talks are not expected to result in a new treaty.

‘Momentum for talks’

Officials said the US would pledge a 17% cut in emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, 30% by 2025, 42% by 2030 and 83% by 2050.

Mr Obama will outline a “pathway” towards the US goals at the summit, a White House statement said.

It described the cuts as “a significant contribution to a problem that the US has neglected for too long”.

But most other countries’ targets are given in comparison with 1990 figures.

BBC environment correspondent Richard Black says that on that basis the US figure amounts to just a few percentage points, as its emissions have risen by about 15% since 1990.

This is much less than the EU’s pledge of a 20% cut over the same period, or a 30% cut if there is a global deal; and much less than the 25-40% figure that developing countries are demanding.

The US president will be in the Danish capital on 9 December, a day before receiving his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

But he does not plan to return for the key last stages of the 7-18 December summit.

Major priority

Responding to the announcement, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: “I welcome that President Obama has committed to come to Copenhagen.

“I have made clear that we need as many world leaders present as possible. I hope that others will follow suit.”

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the host of the talks, said he hoped Mr Obama could “contribute to an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen”.

The announcement was also welcome by environmental group Friends of the Earth.

“Obama’s pledge to go to Copenhagen is a welcome and significant development – but he must adopt a ‘Yes we can’ attitude in the UN climate talks if he is to earn his Nobel prize,” spokesman Tom Picken said.

“The US is the world’s biggest per capita polluter. It has a moral responsibility to take the lead in securing a strong and fair agreement.”

The decision follows intense speculation about whether the US president would go at all.

Delegations from 192 countries will be attending the summit.

Leaders saying they will attend include UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

Hu Jintao, president of the world’s largest polluter, China, is yet to commit to attending.

The US is the second largest polluter after China.

Mr Obama has made climate change a major priority for his administration, after previous incumbents had failed to ratify the Kyoto treaty.

A bill to cap US emissions and establish a national carbon trading scheme is currently stuck in the Senate and is not expected to pass before the end of the year.

But Senator John Kerry, co-sponsor of the Senate bill, said Mr Obama’s move could have an impact on domestic politics.

“This could be one hell of a global game changer with big reverberations here at home,” he said.

Correspondents say most nations have given up hope of a legally binding treaty because of uncertainty about the US position.

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