Climate negotiators strike
last-minute deal
By Bernie Becker
November 23, 2013, 02:46 pm
Dozens of countries reached a
climate change agreement in Warsaw
on Saturday, overcoming a rift between developing and more established
economies.
In the talks, fast-growing
economies like China and India won more lenient climate change guidelines
than the U.S.
and European countries originally wanted.
Countries will now make
“contributions” toward reducing emissions over the next two years, instead of
“commitments,” after what media reports described as negotiations that helped
drive the U.N. talks in Warsaw
into an extra day.
Todd Stern, the
federal government’s special envoy for climate change, said Warsaw “was quite a tough negotiation” but
also “quite useful.”
"This is a quintessentially
global problem, so you have to have action all over the world. Climate change
isn’t local - the carbon you emit anywhere in the world affects everywhere in
the world,” Stern said.
“It gives a strong message to
civil society and the private sector that this is going to be dealt with at the
global level.”
Developing and developed countries
have long been on different pages when it comes to tackling climate change.
But even a narrow agreement at Warsaw, where close to
200 countries took part, could help lay the groundwork for a longer-term
agreement in 2015. Negotiators are scheduled to meet in Paris that year to discuss a potential global
climate change agreement.
On Twitter, Connie Hedegaad, the
European Union’s commissioner for climate action, acknowledged the difficulty
negotiators had in finding an agreement. “I’m sure there are more comfortable
ways” to Paris in 2015, she sad, “but now we can move forward.”
Outside groups pushing for action
on climate change said, that while the U.N. efforts in Warsaw might have found an agreement,
countries still need to pick up the pace.
“In the nick of time, negotiators
in Warsaw
delivered just enough to keep things moving,” said Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute.
“World leaders better get their
act together quickly. If they show up empty-handed in 2015 and don’t secure a
strong international agreement, they’ll be known as the generation that clearly
saw the growing threat of global climate change, and failed to try to stop it,”
said Jake Schmidt of the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
Todd Stern
Todd
Stern is the special envoy for climate change at the U.S. Department of State for the Barack Obama administration, and was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Note: George Soros was a
supporter for the Center for American
Progress, and is the chairman for the
Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Climate
Reality Project,
Frances G.
Beinecke is the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a director at the World Resources Institute.
James Gustave
Speth is a trustee at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a director at the Climate Reality Project, and a director at the World Resources Institute.
Albert
A. Gore Jr. is the chairman for the Climate Reality Project,
and a director at the World Resources
Institute.
Theodore
Roosevelt IV is a director at the Climate Reality Project,
and was a director at the World
Resources Institute.
Lee
M. Thomas was a director at the Climate Reality Project,
an administrator for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, and is a director at
the World Resources Institute.
Carol M. Browner
was a director at the Climate Reality Project,
an administrator for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, the energy czar for the Barack Obama administration, and is a senior
fellow, director at the Center for
American Progress.
Melody
C. Barnes was the domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, the EVP
for the Center for American Progress,
and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.
Todd
Stern was a senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress, and is the special envoy for climate change at the U.S. Department of State for the Barack Obama administration.
No comments:
Post a Comment