US-Klimastrategien scheinen Dampf zu verlieren[en] 

Next December in Copenhagen, the global community must decide upon a new international climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 (see EurActiv LinksDossier on 'Global options for tackling climate change'). 

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bonn (29 March–8 April) launched the negotiations for a draft agreement in view of the final conference in the Danish capital (EurActiv 09/04/09). 

US President Barack Obama has already pledged to cut his country's greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, but the administration's mandate in the negotiations hinges on its ability to pass national climate legislation through the Congress before the year is out (EurActiv 23/04/09). 

Todd Stern said Washington wanted major economies including China, the European Union and Russia to seek more common ground on issues such as green technology, finance and emissions cuts at talks in Paris on May 25-26. 

The talks are the second among major nations accounting for about 80% of world greenhouse gas emissions under a plan by US President Barack Obama to contribute to a new UN climate pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. 

Stern told Reuters that many nations viewed the meetings as "a place where actual progress may be made on issues that otherwise would hang up the (UN) negotiations".

But Stern, who is US Special Envoy for Climate Change, said the US-run Major Economies Forum (MEF) would not necessarily seek to culminate in July with agreement on firm greenhouse gas targets and dates. 

"It may be that we have some numbers [...] in July. The honest answer is that I don't know yet," he said in a telephone interview. A MEF summit is due on the margins of a summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations in Italy in July.

Paris is the second preparatory ministerial meeting after one in Washington in April. A third is due in Mexico in June. 

Asked if Washington might try to get MEF nations to agree to harden a "vision" of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 agreed by a G8 summit in Japan last year, Stern said: 

"I don't think it's necessarily a question of thinking about this all in terms of whether there will be a 2050 (target) as much as 'are countries going to move towards agreeing a set of principles of the kind that will advance the ball in Copenhagen?' 

Droughts, floods 

The UN talks comprise almost 200 nations, aiming for a deal to rein in warming that the U.N. Climate Panel says will cause more droughts, floods, crop failures, spread disease and raise sea levels. 

The Paris talks will group Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Denmark as host of the Copenhagen meeting and the United Nations are also invited. 

Obama has promised to cut US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a cut of about 14% from 2007 levels. Many developing nations, led by China and India, say the rich should make far deeper cuts. 

Stern also said he was not worried that a bill under consideration by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would water down Obama's goal of auctioning 100% of permits to emit carbon dioxide to industries. 

Under the draft sponsored by Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, about 85% of permits would initially be given away free to industries as part of a system to cap U.S. emissions and allow a carbon trading market. 

"I'm actually not worried about that at all," Stern said of the free allowances. "The Waxman bill still has a long road to go. The road ahead will not be easy." 

"The issue of having 100% auctions is a great policy idea but we are always in the realm of the art of the possible," he said. "A cap is a cap. If it binds it binds. If some emissions go over some period of time to compensate people or companies who are hard hit I think that's part of the process."

(EurActiv with Reuters.) 

Speaking at a press conference during the EU-China Summit, which took place on 20 May in Prague, Commission president José Manuel Barroso urged all major economies to disclose their positions on climate change in order to make a deal possible in Copenhagen by the end of the year.

"Building on our Climate Change Partnership, which we agreed in 2005, the EU and China can make a difference on the road to 'seal the deal' in Copenhagen by the end of the year," Barroso said. "We are already working together on practical and sustainable solutions to today’s challenges, as reflected in the Statement on Cooperation on Clean Energy that we signed today."

"And multilaterally, we agree on a lot: on the scale of the challenges – most importantly, to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. We agree on the need for action by all countries according to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. 

Now what is needed is a clear engagement of all major economies to make a deal possible in Copenhagen. For that to happen, each of us must put his positions on the table. The EU has already done it to a large extent. 

The USA is moving in the right direction and I want to praise President Obama for the important measures regarding car emissions announced yesterday. I am sure that China will also engage fully and build on progress made recently. We will have the occasion to come back to this in our discussions around the G8 Summit in Italy in July."