Last month, President Obama came clean and said there wasn't going to be a legally-binding agreement at the two-week conference. This wasn't exactly a surprise. The United States had begged off Copenhagen's predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol. Plus, an international agreement on climate change now could derail the climate change legislation still stuck in Congress. And finally, an agreement at Copenhagen would not only mandate emissions reduction but also financial aid to developing nations to do the same, not an appealing prospect in time of economic uncertainty and unpopular bailouts.
Still, Copenhagen participants saw Obama's one-day visit to the conference -Wednesday- as a great omen. The stakes are high so let's hope they are right....
.JPG)
0 comments:
Post a Comment