U.S. seeks reins in new set of climate talks

Jeff Mason, Reuters 24 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States hopes to take the reins of international efforts to battle global warming next week with a meeting of major economies aimed at facilitating a U.N. pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat who took office in January, called the meeting last month to relaunch a process that began under his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, whose commitment to curbing climate change was viewed with skepticism by much of the world.

The stakes are higher now. The Kyoto Protocol, which caps greenhouse gas emissions, runs out in 2012 and leaders from around the globe will gather in Copenhagen in December to forge a successor treaty. Environmentalists hope renewed engagement by the United States and Obama's push for U.S. leadership on the issue will result in a deal.

The White House views next week's meeting in Washington, which groups 16 major economies including the European Union and the United Nations, as an avenue toward securing a broader pact -- a goal that many believed Bush did not share.

"The Bush administration obviously had a completely different approach to this issue than we do," Todd Stern, the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, told Reuters, adding Obama wanted to invigorate the forum with more substance.

"They were not fundamentally looking for an international agreement," he said of the Bush administration. "We are looking for an international agreement and we're looking for cooperation at a significant, we hope, transformative level."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to make opening remarks on Monday. Officials said participants would discuss cooperation on technology and other issues.

Bush began the major economies forum in 2007, but the initiative was marred by concern among participating countries that he was trying to circumvent wider United Nations talks.

"Nobody took him seriously because he spent eight years pretending climate change didn't exist," said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for environmental group Sierra Club, referring to Bush.

"Obama, on the other hand, obviously is taking climate change very, very seriously and wants, reasonably enough, to talk to everyone about what to do ahead of Copenhagen."

FACILITATING U.N. TALKS

James Connaughton, a former top environmental adviser to Bush, said the former president's motives were also focused on facilitating a U.N. pact.

"The point of this was to be able to inform and help accelerate progress in the UN," he told Reuters.

Obama hopes to cut U.S. emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels -- tougher than Bush, who saw U.S. emissions peaking as late as 2025.

European governments and many environmentalists want Obama to go further.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu indicated on Saturday in Port of Spain, Trinidad, that Washington was not interested in retooling its percentage goal for 2020.

"I think that rather than debating a few percent, the best thing we can do is to get started as soon as possible," he told reporters at the Summit of the Americas.

But the April 27-28 meeting, and follow-ups in other countries, are expected to pave the way toward Copenhagen and work out some of the disagreements that remain.

The major economies include: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Denmark, which is hosting the U.N. meeting in December, was also invited.

"The presence of the major economies forum increases our chances of success for getting an agreement at Copenhagen," said Annie Petsonk, international counsel for the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund.

"The more that those countries can come together around a framework, the greater likelihood that they can pour that into a larger agreement."

One stumbling block, however, may lie with some poor countries and other developing nations not present and what contribution will be demanded from them.

"We do not see the most vulnerable countries included in these discussions and that is what we would like to see," said Kim Carstensen, head of environmental group WWF's Global Climate Initiative.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Eric Walsh)

U.S., California push ahead in climate politics
Mary Milliken, Reuters 23 Apr 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democrats in Congress worked on Thursday to win over U.S. lawmakers skeptical of climate change legislation, while climate leader California took another major step with low-carbon rules on fuels that could be copied nationwide.

The two moves signaled growing political momentum behind efforts to curb greenhouse gases, which President Barack Obama, a Democrat, has made a policy priority after years of slow going by his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern told Reuters in an interview Thursday that "what happens in our own legislative process" will determine the country's commitment to cutting emissions in a global climate deal.

In California, where climate change legislation was passed in 2006, regulators on Thursday adopted a landmark rule to slash carbon emissions in motor fuels and spur the market for cleaner gasoline alternatives.

It marks the first attempt by a government anywhere in the world to subject transportation fuels -- as opposed to the cars and trucks they power -- to limits on their potential for releasing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

"California's first-in-the-world Low Carbon Fuel Standard will not only reduce global warming pollution -- it will reward innovation, expand consumer choice and encourage the private investment we need to transform our energy infrastructure," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after the landmark decision.

Schwarzenegger said 16 states, Obama and members of Congress support a national standard modeled on California's. Environmental groups say the state may also influence European Union policy.

DEMOCRATS OFFER FLEXIBILITY

In Washington, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held its third consecutive day of hearings on Thursday on a proposal to drastically limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases spewed from factories and utilities.

In the face of staunch opposition from most Republicans and the concerns of several moderate Democrats, Representative Edward Markey announced on Thursday that industries would be allowed some free pollution permits under the legislation, to be written in coming weeks.

There has been a spirited debate on Capitol Hill and within the environmental movement over whether firms should have to pay for all their emission permits, which could affect the price of permits auctioned by the government.

"There are going to be some free allocations of allowances," Markey told reporters, without specifying what entities would receive the allowances or what percentage might be free.

In acknowledging some permits would be free under the bill, Markey may have taken a major step toward enticing some wavering Democrats to support the measure.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, who wrote draft climate control legislation with Markey, wants his panel to complete work on the bill by the end of May, teeing up a vote by the full House later in the year.

LEGISLATION NOT "INSURMOUNTABLE"

The measure faces its toughest hurdle in the 100-member Senate, where 60 votes are needed for passage. But climate envoy Stern said he thought it would be possible to get enough support to pass the bill.

"I don't think the problem's too insurmountable," he said.

The crux of the bill is a cap-and-trade system, favored by Obama, to cut U.S. emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels. That commitment would be welcome by many nations frustrated by U.S. stonewalling on carbon cuts for a decade.

The message of a new climate strategy at the White House echoed abroad in Italy on Thursday, where the top U.S. environment official said her government would work tirelessly toward a deal on global warming. [nLN259261]

"I bring from President Obama his message of hope, his message of change, his message of common purpose for the environment," Lisa Jackson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told environment ministers from rich and poor nations on her first overseas visit.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko, Jeff Mason and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington, Suzanne Hunt in Sacramento and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Todd Eastham)