U.S. Diplomat Urges Clean Energy Bill Approval
By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington - A major international climate
conference that begins December 7 in Copenhagen presents an
opportunity for the United States and the world to show a
firm commitment to meeting the challenge that climate change
presents, a senior U.S. diplomat says.
"The choice we
face is not between simply continuing with business as usual
and a somewhat cleaner, greener future," Todd Stern, the
State Department's special envoy for climate change, said in
prepared congressional testimony November 4. "If we continue
on our high carbon and high emissions pathway, we will put
at risk our economy, the health and safety of our
environment, and our national security."
The U.S.
Senate is considering a climate and energy bill that would
cap greenhouse gas emissions and support new methods for
fueling homes and vehicles with fewer carbon dioxide
emissions. The U.S. House of Representatives passed its
version of the legislation earlier this year.
The 15th
session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N.
Framework Convention on Climate Change, which will include
representatives from 192 nations, will be held December 7-18
in Copenhagen. The climate accord to be developed at the
Copenhagen meeting will be a successor to the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, which required 37 industrialized nations to cut
greenhouse gas emissions an average of 5 percent by 2012.
The United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol and
rejected that target because it made no demands on major
developing countries.
"Nothing the United States can
do is more important for the international negotiation
process than passing robust, comprehensive clean energy
legislation as soon as possible," Stern testified before the
House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Committee Chairman
Howard Berman agreed that delaying passage of key
legislation would limit the negotiating flexibility of the
United States in Copenhagen because Congress has yet to
provide clear guidance on emissions levels and related
issues.
"In June, the House passed legislation that
would reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent
below 2005 levels and provide assistance for poor countries
to adapt to the impacts of climate change, develop clean
energy technologies and reduce emissions from
deforestation," Berman said.
Florida Representative
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the senior Republican on the committee,
said the president has made clear his desire to try to reach what is being
billed as a historic agreement to replace the expiring Kyoto
Protocol.
"However, there is growing concern about the
implication of such an agreement. Many of the proposals
already put forward in the name of fighting global climate
change contain provisions that, if adopted, would do great
harm to U.S. interests," Ros-Lehtinen
said.
Ros-Lehtinen also said that many of the
proposals being discussed are so sweeping that the U.S.
economy would have to be restructured to achieve many of
their goals. "No credible estimate of the actual [costs] to
our economy in terms of money, lost jobs, and reduced
economic output have been put forward," she
added.
President Obama met with European Union leaders
at the White House November 3. A declaration released after
the meeting pledged that at the Copenhagen meeting the
United States and the European Union would work together for
"an agreement that aspires to a global goal of a 50 percent
reduction of global emissions by 2050, and reflects the
respective midterm mitigation efforts of all major
economies, both developed and emerging." The declaration
also recognized the scientific view that global temperatures
should not exceed an average of 2 degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels.
"All of us agreed that it was
imperative for us to redouble our efforts in the weeks
between now and the Copenhagen meeting to assure that we
create a framework for progress in dealing with what is a
potential ecologic disaster," Obama said in a press briefing
with the European Union officials.
(This is a product
of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
ENDS