Bush may be in town but he is not attending any climate meetings today...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/world/24warming.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
At 08:56 PM 9/23/2007, Pam Chasek wrote:
Im currently finishing up the ENB report from
Montreal it will be out later tonight.
Apparently the US had marching orders to bring
climate into the ozone process before the
upcoming high-level meetings at the GA tomorrow
and in Washington later this week. Some skeptics
in Montreal suggested that the agreement may
also serve to draw attention away from the UNFCCC.
Personally, I think that this may not be a
delaying tactic but evidence that the Bush
administration needs in moving the international
community away from time-bound targets (ie
Kyoto) and emissions trading towards voluntary
commitments. Why should we bother negotiating a
post-2012 regime of time-bound targets when we
can accomplish more outside of the climate
change regime? Sounds reasonable, doesnt it? (note dripping sarcasm here).
Another thing to bear in mind is the danger is
that people assume ONLY the "best case" climate
scenario (5 times Kyoto, etc), which is not the
only possibility... Depending upon alternative
technologies chosen etc, it may not be so
effective. But it plays into the
administrations hands if 5 times Kyoto is the media mantra.
I guess well see more as climate week goes on.
Bush arrived in NYC this evening and all of us
on the East Side are geared up for lots of CO2
producing motorcades and traffic until we send everyone down to DC.
Cheers,
Pam
Pamela S. Chasek, Ph.D.
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Henrik Selin
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 8:47 PM
To: Wil Burns; 'phaas'; 'GEP-ED'
Subject: RE: ozone/climate change
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 its 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 theres 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]
SSRN Author Page:
<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
