“I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future," Obama said in his first State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress.
Energy reform has been hugely controversial in Congress, especially as the United States battles its way out of recession. Legislation that would curb the country's greenhouse-gas emissions has stalled in the US Senate. “The nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation," Obama said.
Across the Atlantic, the European Union on 27 January confirmed its plans to cut its CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, with an option to raise the target to 30% if other international partners make comparable efforts. The long-forecast decision had to be confirmed by 1 February - a deadline for nations to communicate their states emission targets to the United Nations.
At a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, it was established that the bloc will stick to its “unilateral objective of 20% and a conditional objective of 30%," Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
They added that the EU's official notification to the secretariat of theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) will explain “in a footnote" that the bloc is willing to go further, but only if other industrialized nations follow its lead.
The EU's offer - an established policy of the bloc since 2008 - failed to move other world leaders at December's Copenhagen summit on climate. The US pledge, for example, amounted to a 3% to 4% cut when using the 1990 baseline adopted by the EU.
In view of the summit's failure, EU members such as Italy and Poland successfully resisted calls to raise the bloc's target unconditionally to 30%, in the hope that the US and other countries such as China would be urged to act.
At Copenhagen, no agreement was concluded on global emissions cuts. Instead, nations were asked to submit their voluntary pledges to the UNFCC by the end of January. Hopes for a global deal on limiting climate change are now pinned on the next UN climate change conference, due to start in Mexico on 29 November.
The Copenhagen accord should be seen as part of the two-track negotiating process towards reaching a climate accord in Mexico City in December, ministers from the major developing Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) said on 24 January.
The BASIC ministers, in a joint statement, also called for the convening of a meeting of the two main negotiating groups at Copenhagen - the developed and developing countries - by March. “These negotiating groups should be called in March and at least six meetings should be held in the year 2010 so that we have a successful conclusion at Mexico City," India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at the conclusion of a meeting of the BASIC ministers in New Delhi.
Brazil's Minister for Environment Carlos Minc, his South African counterpart Buyelwa Sonjica, and the Vice-Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission Xie Zhenhua attended the meeting convened by Ramesh.
The joint statement also called for rapid distribution of the $10 billion pledged by developed nations for tackling climate change in vulnerable nations during 2010. “If the 10 billion dollars does not flow to Africa, small island states and LDCs (least developed countries), we will know the developed countries are not serious," Ramesh said at a joint briefing.
The BASIC countries intend to communicate information on voluntary mitigation actions to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) by 31 January, a joint statement said. “All of us are unanimously of the view that the value of the accord lies not as a stand-alone document but as part of the two-track negotiating process," Ramesh said. “This meeting has sent a very powerful signal to the rest of the world of our intentions and of our continued desire to work towards a successful conclusion of the two-track negotiating process under the UNFCC," Ramesh said.
Some developing countries outside the BASIC group and environment activists had expressed apprehension that the accord may sidetrack negotiations on long-term cooperative action and the Kyoto Protocol. The BASIC minister's statement can be seen in the context of trying to allay these worries and an attempt to draw support from developing countries which have been wary of the Copenhagen accord.
Brazil, China, South Africa and India along with the United States brokered the deal near the end of the Copenhagen meeting, after which it was presented to the other 187 nations. The stated objective is to hold the increase in global temperature below two degrees Celsius. Some non-governmental organizations have said at the current level of commitments, temperatures would rise more than three degrees.
