US Climate Neogtiator Plans to do Nothing at Poznan
Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky will be arriving in Poznan next week for the high-level ministerial negotiations that will be the culmination of the two-week UN process towards a post-Kyoto global climate change treaty. She and the chief White House environmental policy advisor, James Connaughton had a press briefing today in advance of their trip.
Dobriansky basically said that their participation in efforts to achieve anything substantial will be minimal:
In Poznan, our highest priority will be to set the stage for an effective outcome in 2009. And what this means specifically is that we hope that Poznan can produce a deeper understanding of parties' priorities and expectations, and then also our objective there is to reach consensus on a practical work plan -- a work plan that will guide us and the new team into intensive negotiations into the spring period of next year for agreement at Copenhagen in December in 2009.
This, of course, is essentially a replay from last year's meeting in Bali. Nearly a year ago, Dobriansky explained what the US delegation wanted to accomplish in Bali:
First, we would like to see a successful outcome in Bali, and specifically, the United States is very committed to developing a new global post-2012 framework that is environmentally effective and economically sustainable. And toward this end, the United States will be working with its partners to reach consensus on a Bali road map that will advance negotiations
Over the past year we've moved from wanting to "advance negotiations" to an outcome that will "produce a deeper understanding of parties' priorities"!
On the one hand, this inaction is possibly a good thing--having the Bush Administration lock the US into some position that would likely be ineffective and possibly damaging would not be beneficial in the long run.
On the other hand, the interregnum in US power is giving other countries--namely Australia, Japan, and Canada--a
convenient decoy to allow them to dodge their own commitments. The
void, in turn, could make it difficult to have a Kyoto successor in
place by next December.
Aye. I'm thinking it may be better to not have the current administration involved in setting any environmental standards or benchmarks in the denouement of his 'joyful' eight years in the White house. As you say, anything the Bush regime would agree to is bound to be woefully inadequate. I don't have my ear to the ground on this one, but the scheduling for this event during the last two months of the lame duckie appears to be designed to either allow for an inadequate response or alternatively to postpone any agreement at all for a year or two. Color me cynical.
December 4, 2008 1:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you had the choice between negotiating with Bush this year, or Obama next. Wouldn't you drag your feet too?
I'm not sure that's cynical.
December 4, 2008 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, the major "Conference of the Parties" meetings are always held in early December. It probably stems from the fact that the original Kyoto protocol was signed in December.
December 5, 2008 1:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for clearing that up Hugh. I'll suspend my cynicism, (at least regarding of the scheduling of the Poznan talks), for the time being.
December 5, 2008 6:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
As an agnostic, I can tell you with confidence that this is really the Lord's work being done here. What is needed is to get a group of people together (especially thinking about the issues of Jim Hansen and 350.org) from TPM Cafe, from DePaul, and (where I'm trying) my own "native" political haunts of sds/mds, DemocraticLeft, etc (Progressives For Obama dimension of US politics) as well as others together into some kind of network focusing on the politics of climate chaos ("global warming", "climate change"). Definitely one place to have some kind of visible base is Democratic Underground, where "Red Earth" and others have shown interest and knowledge in this area. So far, although there is a mass movement focusing on coal, w/which many sdsers are closely involved, there isn't anything like that kind of grassroots activism to my knowledge on overall climate chaos policy and politics, especially the kind of militant mass movement I believe to be essential.
I am at cloudynuageux(at)aol.com for interested peeps to contact
December 4, 2008 2:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Does anybody take these "post-Kyoto" negotiations seriously?
Not me, and I'm concerned about global warming.
Canada signed on to Kyoto, then instead of cutting emissions as promised, increased them hand over fist.
After stalling on any action, our current prime minister has declared that it would mean economic disaster to meet the country's Kyoto targets.
And he's absolutely right. Largely responsible for the situation, but right.
Those who maintain we can indeed fulfill Canada's original Kyoto obligations are simply bullshitting the public. The political will is simply not there.
The biggest real reduction in greenhouse emissions is likely to come from the global economic collapse. Now if only the black death would sweep from continent to continent, slashing populations by half, we might stand a realistic chance.
December 4, 2008 4:32 AM | Reply | Permalink