Executive Vice President for Policy,
Clean Air-Cool Planet
It’s 11 at night in Copenhagen, and the word is that President Obama has finally sewn up a deal. It took more effort, of a more personal kind, than perhaps he might have expected. He had to scrap his schedule, stay longer than he planned, cajole Wen Jiabao one on one, and finally crash a private consultation among the leaders of China, India, and Brazil, but he got what he came for – a climate change accord with China and India included.
It’s not a deal that will make many happy. The goal of halving global emissions by 2050, reflecting the minimum cuts science says are necessary, is absent – a high price to pay to get a Chinese target that will be subject to international review. There is no schedule to make the accord legally binding. The American emissions target was not what the Europeans wanted, and even the European emissions target – the strongest laid down — failed to satisfy many advocates.
It appeared at the end, that the choice was between a weak deal with China and India included, or a stronger deal without them. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown talked openly about going without China as late as 5 p.m. this afternoon. Perhaps that helped soften the Chinese negotiating stance – we may never know the full answer.
What we do know is that this political accord has laid a new foundation for global action on climate change. It is the first time that all major emitters have articulated national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However halting and difficult this step has been, it is a turning point in the international community’s approach to what is now seen as the overriding global environmental issue of our time.
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