No agreement between major powers on carbon emissions

[Antid Oto]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

[In tegenstelling tot de klimaatontkenner Fluks, ben ik voor de
verandering eens klimaatneutraal..]

UN climate change meeting
No agreement between major powers on carbon emissions
By Tom Eley
23 September 2009

On Tuesday, government leaders representing about 100 nations gathered
at the United Nations in New York to discuss global warming. The
meeting was billed as an attempt to jump-start negotiations in advance
of a December summit in Copenhagen at which a global treaty governing
greenhouse gas emissions is to be produced.

Instead, the New York conference only served to highlight the
impossibility of realizing even the most limited environmental reforms
in a world order dominated by rival capitalist nation states.

Global warming is caused by carbon dioxide emissions created in the
burning of fossil fuels. Carbon and other “greenhouse gases” trap heat
in the atmosphere, increasing the earth’s temperature beyond normal
climatological fluctuations. Among global warming’s observed effects
are the melting of the polar ice caps, which threatens coastal
populations due to rising sea levels, and an increase in the severity
of weather patterns. Its impact on the earth’s species, food
production, water supply and human disease will be dramatic.

In light of the gathering threat of environmental catastrophe, the
inability of the world heads of state to agree on even modest measures
to meet it is all the more glaring. The conference revealed sharp
divisions among the world’s three largest greenhouse gas producers,
the US, China, and Europe.

China and the US by themselves produce 40 percent of all carbon
emissions. The two nations, whose economies are also tightly bound
together, have refused to agree to mandates on emission reductions.
The speeches of presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao, both of whom
addressed the UN gathering, were therefore watched with particular
interest.

Obama’s remarks were typical of the president. Replete with saccharine
rhetorical flourishes like “we are determined to act,” “difficulty is
no excuse for complacency,” “seize the opportunity,” “the journey is
long,” and so on, the speech had nothing to say about what the US
might do to reduce its emissions.

“Yes, the developed nations that caused much of the damage to our
climate over the last century still have a responsibility to lead,”
Obama said. “And we will continue to do so by investing in renewable
energy, promoting greater efficiency, and slashing our emissions to
reach the targets we set for 2020 and our long-term goal for 2050.”

In fact, the US has taken no significant measures to reduce its carbon
emissions. The US is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997,
after Congress, on cue from major corporate polluters, refused to
ratify the treaty. The US is the only major country not to pass Kyoto.

Obama did not use his UN speech to call on the the US Senate to
produce a greenhouse gas emissions bill in advance of the Copenhagen
meeting. To be ratified, any treaty would require a 67-vote Senate
majority.

Obama favors a “free market” solution to global warming, or so-called
“cap and trade” measures, which would provide rich incentives to
corporations to modestly reduce carbon emissions, while turning
pollution into a tradeable commodity. Such a bill was passed in the
House in June, but has been held up in the Senate until some time next
year. (See "US House passes Obama administration’s carbon trading
legislation".)

The only difference that Obama’s speech enunciated from the previous
American position was an acceptance that global warming is, in fact,
taking place and that it is caused by human activity. This Obama
referred to as an “historic recognition on behalf of the American
people and their government [that] we understand the gravity of the
climate threat...” George W. Bush, Obama’s obscurantist predecessor in
the White House, notoriously declared that “all the science isn’t in
yet” on global warming.

Yet, in his speech’s only substantive portion, Obama reiterated the
Bush administration position that combating carbon emissions is the
responsibility of developing industrial powers like China and India.
“Those rapidly-growing developing nations that will produce nearly all
the growth in global carbon emissions in the decades ahead must do
their part as well,” Obama said.

Given that China and India are rapidly growing economies, it is
unsurprising that their carbon emissions are also growing rapidly. But
they still lag far behind the US in per capita carbon production.
While the US produces about the same amount of carbon as China, it has
less than a fourth of China’s population.

There is little doubt that China’s rapid industrial expansion is
creating an environmental disaster. Much of China’s energy consumption
comes from burning coal, which produces carbon emissions at a higher
rate than other fossil fuels.

Hu tacitly rejected the American president’s claim that developing
countries must shoulder the burden for reducing carbon emissions.
“Developing countries need to strike a balance between economic
growth, social development and environmental protection,” Hu said.

Hu indicated that China would continue to increase its carbon
emissions, saying only that greenhouse gas output would decrease
relative to economic growth. Hu also said that China would begin a
large-scale reforestation project, increase its consumption of
non-fossil fuels, and develop a “green economy.”

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, addressed the meeting on behalf
of the European nations, which “have grown increasingly frustrated
with Mr. Obama for not investing more political capital in the climate
agenda at home,” the British daily Telegraph notes.

Sarkozy used his speech to take a swipe at Obama, telling the gathered
heads of state he would not “inflict” a “grandiose speech” on
delegates when “concrete proposals” are required.

Sub-Saharan African and poor island nations, which are already
suffering under the effects of global warming and which produce
relatively negligible amounts of carbon, are requesting financial
reparations from the wealthier nations primarily responsible for
global warming.

The French environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, went out of his
way to reject such a proposal. “They have to show what it will pay
for,” he said.

It is clear that if any agreement is produced at December’s Copenhagen
gathering, it will be a derisory response to the crisis of global warming.

To date, major industrialized nations have agreed to reduce emissions
by 2050. This date is so far in the future, and the promises to reduce
emissions so vague, that it is not taken seriously. The United
Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has proposed a
short-term target of reducing emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent
below 1990 levels by 2020. This reduction, which environmental groups
say is insufficient to reverse global warming, is likely to be opposed
by the US as well as China and India, which reject emission mandates.

There are also unresolved disagreements over what body should oversee
compliance with carbon emission standards.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general, who called the climate change
summit, lamented that “negotiations were moving as fast as a glacier.”

Slower, perhaps, than the world’s glaciers are melting.

Copyright © 1998-2009 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/clim-s23.shtml

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********