Posted on 09/23/2014 5:22:27 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
Perhaps the most interesting thing about President Barack Obama’s climate change speech at the United Nations is what he didn’t say.
Obama didn’t promise $1 billion to help poor countries adapt to the dire effects of climate change, like France did. And he didn’t offer any hints about how sharply greenhouse gas emissions would be cut in the years after 2020, like the European Union and several other countries did.
Instead, the president delivered a forceful but largely detail-free speech that sought to reassure the world about the United States’ commitment to reaching a global climate change agreement at crucial talks in Paris at the end of 2015, while leaving the specifics for later.
“It was a good speech, but there was nothing revolutionary put forward,” said Heather Coleman, climate change policy manager at Oxfam America.
Many groups fighting for a strong global agreement say revolutionary changes are needed if the planet has a chance of avoiding the most serious effects of climate change, such as widespread drought and substantial sea-level rise. While many environmentalists praised Obama’s speech, others said they’re still waiting for more aggressive steps, like a concerted effort to wean the country off fossil fuels.
“If the president really wants collective ambition, he’s got to show a little more can-do spirit from the world’s leading economy,” said Bill McKibben, who played a prominent role in Sunday’s massive climate march and is the co-founder of the environmental group 350.org. “Today’s boasts about his climate efforts ring hollow in the face of America passing Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s largest oil and gas producer. We hope that when ‘next year’ comes and he proposes actual targets, they’ll start to reverse the trend.”
It’s no accident that Obama didn’t make big promises. After years of failed international climate change negotiations, the president and his aides are keenly aware of the pitfalls of over-promising, even though the administration has taken unprecedented measures at home to tackle climate change, including seeking the first-ever greenhouse gas limits on the nation’s power plants.
The Obama administration faces a series of complicated considerations as it prepares its post-2020 emissions target, including determining what is achievable and politically viable, and how best the U.S. can pressure other countries to take similar action.
Peter Ogden, director of international energy and climate policy at the Center for American Progress, said the U.S. could use the time before it announces its post-2020 target to pressure China and other major polluters to offer strong targets of their own.
“I actually think that it’s smart to be a little patient, spend some time after it has decided its own target to work quietly with China and others to push for equally strong ones from them,” he said.
While President Xi Jinping of China — the world’s top CO2 emitter — did not attend the summit, Obama met with Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli behind closed doors before his speech. And Obama will meet with Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, another major greenhouse gas emitter, during the leader’s upcoming trip to Washington.
Countries have been tasked with unveiling their post-2020 targets by the end of the first quarter of 2015. So far, only a handful of countries have outlined their commitments. While the United States hasn’t revealed its target, the European Union’s contribution is taking shape. The European Commission has proposed a target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, a figure that has not yet been finalized.
“I am confident that EU leaders will seal this deal at their summit in October. These targets are milestones on the way to our broader objective of cutting emissions by 80 percent [to] 95 percent by 2050. In effect, we are in the process of de-carbonizing Europe’s economy,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said during the summit.
Obama, in his speech, said the U.S. would outline its target “by early next year.” In 2008, before he was president, Obama called for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 compared with 1990 levels, but it’s unclear whether he’ll stick with that goal.
More broadly, the president used the speech to call for a “global compact” that “must be ambitious because that’s what the scale of this challenge demands.”
When it comes to promising money to aid poor countries, Obama has another problem to deal with: Congress. House Republicans, who have voted dozens of times to block EPA regulations, aren’t likely to green-light billions of dollars for the so-called green climate fund that is designed to help poor countries deal with the effects of global warming.
“Basically, it’s going to require the administration to look hard at the current international budget to figure out where the money is going to come from because the administration doesn’t anticipate additional dollars coming from Congress,” Coleman said.
Richer nations have pledged to put $100 billion per year into the fund starting in 2020, but few countries have offered specific contributions. Several countries, including France, South Korea and Switzerland pledged to funnel money into the fund at the summit. Germany promised $1 billion earlier this summer.
Green activists took comfort in Obama’s comments about helping to fund poor countries. He said in his speech that “developed countries need to truly intensify emissions reductions and fulfill their obligations of providing financial support” to developing nations.
And many praised the president for leading on climate change.
“For him to place climate change at that level of risk was for me a very big deal and a big signal of his understanding of the seriousness and the urgency of this problem,” said Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Resources Institute’s climate and energy program.
Tuesday’s climate summit was never expected to produce a global climate agreement, and it was not a negotiating session. But U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon encouraged leaders and private-sector officials to “bring bold new announcements and action” to the gathering.
“I don’t think there was ever any expectation of the U.S. making an announcement on post-2020 targets or green climate fund financing,” Nat Keohane, vice president of international climate at the Environmental Defense Fund and a former White House energy and environment official, said in an email. “The summit may be being convened by the [U.N. secretary general] but it is not about the U.N. — it is about building momentum through a range of initiatives bringing together governments, businesses, and civil society.”
Obama did make several announcements in his speech, including a series of measures to boost global resilience to the effects of climate change, and a new executive order that he signed Tuesday.
No way he is going to detail how he plans to destroy free enterprise.
We must get on our knees every day thanking God, that Mitt didn’t win.
You have to be kidding!
We must get on our knees every day thanking God, that Mitt didn’t win
Yes, things would be so much worse if Mitt had won./s
He did
Plans to Turn ‘Politically Binding’ UN Climate Change Accord Into Federal Law
September 12, 2014 Barbara Hollingsworth
The Obama government hasn’t worked out the details of THE PLAN, other than the part about how to strip more money from the private sector.
It’s the same strategy that worked well for them with Obamacare.
Sure, there were a few bumps on the roll-out but we taxpayers had to foot the bill for their incompetence and shoddy work and they ended up getting what they wanted anyway.
Sure. He doesn’t have a definite plan YET.
But I’m sure we can trust him to do the right thing.
/S
I wonder how many idiot enthusiasts realize this guy is a fiction writer and has no scientific credentials whatsoever? He has been made a "professor" at Middlebury College, which goes a long way toward explaining why they are known for their hockey team and not for scholarship.
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