Reflections on the Climate Change Challenge
after Copenhagen
Brooks B. Yeager, Executive Vice President for Policy

Amid the catcalls and the legitimate disappointment felt regarding the outcome of the recent two week diplomatic extravaganza in Copenhagen, it’s easy to overlook the one fact that makes what has come to be known as the “Copenhagen Accord” a significant step forward -- it’s the first truly global program of action to deal with climate change.  The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was just that – a framework.  The Kyoto Protocol was an action program, but only for the developed world (minus the U.S.), although it included mechanisms by which the well-off countries could fund emissions reductions in the developing world and the emerging economies of post-Soviet eastern Europe.

The Copenhagen Accord, on the other hand, includes all the major economies, and thus, for the first time, would bring the world’s two biggest emitters, the U.S. and China, into a common action framework with Europe, Japan, and the other major economies of the world.  President Obama deserves a great deal of the credit for this success – without his energetic leadership and hardball diplomacy, there would likely have been no deal whatsoever, and certainly not a comprehensive approach.

The Obama deal undoubtedly disappointed our European allies, who were prepared to target deeper emissions reductions.  And it lacks the deadlines and clear long-term goal statement that would have encouraged the most rigorous reduction efforts from China and other large developing economies.  For that reason, it can only be seen as a first step.  Yet it is a first step that can set the stage for more dramatic efforts, as long as Congress now seizes the baton and runs the next leg.

In some ways, you can argue that this is the best deal for Obama to present to a reluctant Senate.  The essential step towards meeting our Copenhagen commitment will be taken when we enact one of the various cap-and-trade measures pending.  It doesn’t require us to promise anything beyond the steps contemplated in the legislation that’s already passed the House.  Similar provisions are in several of the already-introduced Senate packages.  At the same time, it brings China into the international emissions reduction relay with its own commitment, and in a way that will allow us to assess their progress over time.

This is the key that should unlock Congress’s ability to pass cap-and-trade.  The Senate may not favor the exact approach of the Waxman-Markey legislation in the House, but the emergence of several bipartisan efforts, including those of Senators Cantwell and Collins, and that of Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman, indicates a willingness to move forward in a practical way.

Read Yeager's daily blogs from Copenhagen at Cool Planet.org