Obama's leadership at Copenhagen hailed back home

Posted by blog master Saturday, December 19, 2009

WASHINGTON: The crucial Copenhagen climate conference might have failed to arrive at a consensus but President Barack Obama's
leadership at the
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summit and his attempts that brokered a US-BASIC political deal was hailed by Congress leaders here as "commendable".

Top Congressional leaders praised Obama for reaching a "breakthrough" agreement with China, India, Brazil and South Africa but said this is just a beginning to advance climate change objectives.

"The President's personal involvement, and the efforts of Secretary (Hillary) Clinton and her negotiating team, have been extremely focused and commendable," House Majority Leader Steny H Hoyer said.

US brokered a political deal with India and three other emerging economies over non-legally-binding emission cuts which was rejected by an overwhelming number of developing nations which called it one-sided and "suicidal".

However, Congress leaders, in their initial reactions said the "breakthrough," including transparency measures, a mitigation target of two degree Celsius and a financing
mechanism, was "an important step forward that lays a key marker both in the global fight against climate change and in US participation in such efforts".

As consensus for a deal to tackle climate change eluded the 12-day Conference of Parties (COP), Obama pushed for a pact during parleys that went down to the wire.

Terming it as a bold agreement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this will help secure a safer, cleaner and more prosperous future for the world.

"This Copenhagen Accord was made possible by strong US leadership and recent investments in our national energy policies. This agreement was also aided by constructive engagement with the world community - a result of President Obama's leadership," he said.

"This is a significant and historic agreement, but there is more negotiating and trust building to do before there is a treaty for the Senate to review," Reid said.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, said: "The agreement... could not have been reached without President Obama's active involvement and leadership".

Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said for the first time, the world's major emitting countries, including China and India, have committed to specific actions to cut emissions.

American leadership, especially Obama's personal engagement, fundamentally changed the dynamic at the global warming talks, she said.

With Obama on his way back from Copenhagen, the American media said the deal falls short of key goals, even though it could be considered as a breakthrough by some.

"The deal falls far short of many countries' expectations for the summit and leaves a comprehensive battle plan for climate change potentially years away," said The Washington Post in its news dispatch from Copenhagen.

The Wall Street Journal
said Obama's very presence made a "significant breakthrough a political imperative, no matter how flimsy".

"The agreement addresses many of the issues that leaders came here to settle. But it has left many of the participants in the climate talks unhappy, from the Europeans, who now have the only binding carbon control regime
in the world, to the delegates from the poorest nations, who objected to being left out of the critical negotiations," The New York Times said.

The Post said, the deal, under which each country needs only to list its current domestic pledges for emissions reductions and to promise to allow monitoring of their progress, sparked a rebellion among vulnerable nations.

"No doubt under the agreement China will continue to get a free climate pass despite its role as the world's No 1 emitter," it said.

The accord, The New York Times, said provides a system for monitoring and reporting progress toward national pollution reduction goals, a compromise on an issue over which China bargained hard.

"But it was an equivocal agreement that was, to many, a disappointing conclusion to a two-year process that had the goal of producing a comprehensive and enforceable action plan for addressing dangerous changes to the global climate," it said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Obamas-leadership-at-Copenhagen-hailed-back-home/articleshow/5356176.s