{"id":13933,"date":"2007-12-15T10:40:59","date_gmt":"2007-12-15T15:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13933.html"},"modified":"2007-12-15T10:40:59","modified_gmt":"2007-12-15T15:40:59","slug":"what-constitutes-a-global-warming-compromise-in-bush-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/what-constitutes-a-global-warming-compromise-in-bush-world\/","title":{"rendered":"What constitutes a global-warming ‘compromise’ in Bush World"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of the week, the U.N.’s global-warming conference in Bali wasn’t going well, in large part because of the Bush administration’s obstinacy. The good news is, delegations reached a compromise<\/a> early this morning. The bad news is, it’s painful to realize what constitutes a climate-change “compromise” in Bush World.<\/p>\n

A U.N. climate conference adopted a plan Saturday to negotiate a new global warming pact, after the United States lifted opposition to a call by developing nations for technological help to battle rising temperatures.<\/p>\n

The adoption came after marathon negotiations overnight, which first settled a battle between Europe and the U.S. over whether the document should mention specific goals for rich countries’ obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what was the problem? As delegations worked on a document outlining future goals, European countries included language in the preamble mandating that industrialized countries reduce emissions by 25% — to 40% below 1990 levels — by the year 2020. The Bush administration balked.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough came after over-night negotiations, when an Indonesian official recommended that the emissions targets remain in the preamble, but only as a “footnote<\/a>” to the preamble. Chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson was satisfied, saying the Bush administration’s delegation could “live with” the footnote change, because it was an “indirect” mandate.<\/p>\n

I vaguely recall a time in 2001 when Republicans rejoiced that “grown-ups” would finally be in charge at the White House. In retrospect, their glee looks almost quaint.
\n
\nAnd what happens next? Another round of discussions.<\/p>\n

Upcoming talks, to be completed in 2009, may help determine for years to come how well the world can control climate change, and how severe global warming’s consequences will be. […]<\/p>\n

The broadly worded “roadmap,” in any event, doesn’t itself guarantee any level of emissions reductions or any international commitment by any country — only a commitment to negotiate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s right — this week’s discussions, which the Bush gang resisted at every step, weren’t about establishing measures to combat global warming, they were about negotiating a framework for future negotiations.<\/p>\n

Delegations will meet again next year, at which point the Bush administration’s delegation can resist any substantive progress all over again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most of the week, the U.N.’s global-warming conference in Bali wasn’t going well, in large part because of the Bush administration’s obstinacy. The good news is, delegations reached a compromise early this morning. The bad news is, it’s painful to realize what constitutes a climate-change “compromise” in Bush World. A U.N. climate conference adopted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}