By Rachel Oppenheimer
Despite the global economic crisis, many domestic climate change advocates expect the Obama administration to recommence long-stalled international climate talks. After President Bush’s lack of enthusiasm or earnest concern for the worrisome direction of the global climate, the Obama administration's emphasis on a green overhaul is necessary and encouraging. Obama says that America is ready to head a “truly global coalition” to meet the challenge of acting on climate change, but stresses that countries like China and India must do their part. Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reinforced such hopes of swift and serious climate change action by announcing her appointment of Todd Stern as a special envoy for the pressing international problem. A veteran of the Kyoto Protocol talks, Stern will lead the United States in international climate negotiations. In stark contrast to Bush’s overdue, unspecific and insufficient suggestions to halt the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, Barack Obama has already asked the Environmental Protection Agency to consider California's request to impose its own restrictions on vehicle carbon dioxide emissions. Better detailed and enforced domestic policy is the first step to international influence on the climate change front.
Some international climate change experts, however, are unimpressed with Obama’s goals. "President-elect Obama's goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 falls short of the response needed by world leaders to meet the challenge of reducing emissions to levels that will actually spare us the worst effects of climate change," said Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In a recent study of the state of the world in 2009, IPCC claims that global Co2 emissions must be reduced to negative figures by 2050 to prevent an otherwise imminent climate catastrophe. Further, the lengthy U.S. legislative process will delay actual action and analysts fear that the limits of our system will not fit well within the time frame of the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Given bureaucratic restraints and the close watch of tough critics, Obama offers welcome hope and agressive action plans to lead the global community in preventing the threat of global warming.
MM here - Interesting and well analyzed. Here are a few things I might add.
ReplyDeleteGiven the economic condition of the planet (not just the country), I find it unlikely we'll see a Kyoto style agreement coming together quickly. It might well be that it makes more sense to tackle individual problems separately first - deforestation, for instance, and a cap-and-trade system plus talks with China, India, and other major developing polluters who are the real make or break players. Here's a fantastic (if I do say so myself) multimedia look at the issue -- http://www.cfr.org/publication/17088/.
Hey Rachel! Jaya here, I enjoyed your post, I felt it was quite concise and well put. Plus I learned from it. Good job :)
ReplyDeleteMichael B here: your blog was really interesting, and the layout was clear and well thought out. I felt like you were taking me through the issue step by step, and you had done enough research that you really knew what you were talking about.
ReplyDeleteTwo things I would have like to see more of: a clearer analysis of Todd Sterns's past policy and approach towards climate change, and a more specific summery of Obama's domestic plan broken into different methods. For example, how will Obama's policy approach renewable energy, reducing emission, etc.
Overall, it was great!