I hope that Wil is right, but I fear that Peter is right... The
public in many countries may ask the question posed by Wil, but I
don't see how this Montreal agreement will generate much public
attention and pressure in the US and China. We on this list know
about it, and we get excited about it, but I don't think that is the
case for the average Chinese of American. Somehow, I don't think that
the "this is great, now let's do much more to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions" will be played out on Chinese state television or Fox news.
The first indicator how this will influence Chinese and US climate
change positions (if at all) will be the climate change meeting in
the US in a few days...
Henrik
At 08:23 PM 9/23/2007, Wil Burns wrote:
Quite true, Peter, but the fact that you have countries like the
U.S. and China talking about the need to address climate change in
one of the most important MEA forums is likely to emphasize the
exigency even more of confronting the spectre of global warming, and
my guess is that the public is going to say "if it's salutary to
address it indirectly, in fora such as the Ozone Convention, then
why not directly in the UNFCCC/Kyoto Framework?" While the U.S. and
China may be seeking to downplay the need to confront climate in
these fora by working in others, my guess is that this strategy will
prove too clever by half. (And, you know, I heard tell that there's
something called "epistemic communities" and they work across
regimes in many cases J)
I think the glass on this one is at least three-quarters full, and
how often do we get to say that! wil
Dr. Wil Burns
Senior Fellow, International Environmental Law
Santa Clara University School of Law
500 El Camino Real, Loyola 101
Santa Clara, CA 95053 USA
Phone: 408.551.3000 x6139
Mobile: 650.281.9126
Fax: 408.554.2745
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=240348>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=240348
International Environmental Law Blog:
<http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/intlenvironment/>http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/intlenvironment/
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of phaas
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 5:07 PM
To: GEP-ED
Subject: ozone/climate change
lets not prematurely celebrate the ozone achievements. While a
great advance, surely, for ozone protection, the linkage politics to
clmiate change were strongly presented in the NYT and various press
releases by delegates, indicating that this will be used as a reason
to justify further delay on dealing with climate change.
Peter M. Haas
Professor
Department of Political Science
216 Thompson Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
USA
ph 1 413 545 6174
fax 1 413 545 3349
