U.S. Official Says Talks on Emissions Show Promise

John M. Broder, The New York Times 14 Jan 10;

Todd Stern, the chief American climate change negotiator, said Thursday that the flawed and incomplete agreement reached last month in Copenhagen could provide significant benefits if countries followed through on its provisions.

The three-page Copenhagen Accord is not legally binding, and the 192 nations that took part in the December talks did not formally accept it. But a sizable group of those countries said they would accept its terms and provide plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by Jan. 31.

Wealthy countries also said they would follow through on promises to come up with $30 billion over the next three years to help developing countries adapt to global climate changes.

“It is incredibly important that those things happen,” Mr. Stern told investors gathered for a conference at the United Nations in New York, in his first public comments since the Copenhagen talks ended on Dec. 19. “The accord is lumbering down the runway, and now it needs to get speed so it can take off.”

Mr. Stern also said that the Obama administration remained committed to securing passage of comprehensive energy and climate change legislation to meet its own promises to reduce global warming emissions by about 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

He said that the House had made a promising start by passing a bill last June but that the legislation had been sidetracked in the Senate by the health care debate. He said it was “tremendously important” for the Senate to act on some form of climate change legislation.

“There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind about the president’s commitment to this issue, and he fully understands the importance of putting together the strongest possible domestic program,” Mr. Stern said.

In his remarks to the investor conference, organized by Ceres, a group of environmentally minded business leaders, and the United Nations Foundation, Mr. Stern reviewed the two-week Copenhagen conference, which almost collapsed in failure.

He acknowledged that he was biased but said that the intervention of his boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and President Obama in the final 36 hours of the meeting saved it from utter disaster.

He said Mr. Obama’s main focus was on making sure major developing countries, like China, India and Brazil, provide a transparent way of showing follow-through on promises to reduce releases of carbon dioxide.