US press cool over Obama-backed climate deal

CLIMATE SCIENCE

Sunday papers blast climate accord a failure
Paris (AFP) Dec 20, 2009 - Leading Sunday newspapers labelled the Copenhagen climate conference a disaster for the environment, for global government, and a sign of China's rising power against Europe's weakness. Britain's Sunday Telegraph described the meeting aas "A historic climate summit ... for the extent of its failure." US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown "did their best to put a positive spin on it but Copenhagen was a disaster," the paper said. Delegates had passed the Copenhagen Accord Saturday after nearly two weeks of frantic talks on limiting global warming. The United Nations Climate Change Conference had reached an 11th-hour, non-binding deal assembled by a small group of countries, including United States and China, after it became clear the summit was in danger of failure.

It set out a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) but did not spell out the important stepping stones -- global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050 -- or impose compliance provisions. Britain's The Sunday Times, was similarly unimpressed. "They managed to sign a deal -- eventually. But it was one that won't do much to stop global warming," it said. In the United States, The Washington Times called the summit a "flop" and referred to Friday as "Obama's cold day in Denmark." "The promised treaty -- billed with the characteristic understatement of the alarmist community as 'the single most important piece of paper in the world today' -- was an anticlimax," it said.

The Washington Post noted that many of the details of the accord had yet to be set but it welcomed a commitment by developing countries to a verification regime as "an important step". In host nation Denmark, the conservative daily Berlingske Tidende said the meeting had been "a catastrophic defeat for the good intention of saving the planet." World leaders had not shown any willingness to reach an agreement, it said, accusing UN chief Ban Ki-moon of being more interested complaining how "little he had slept and eaten during the last 24 hours than to take leadership." The meeting gave the United Nations reason for a "thorough examination of its conscience", it said, adding it had shown the poor state of international cooperation.

The largest Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten, said the meeting heralded a new world order. "The big players of the former world order must open their eyes to a new reality: Europe is having trouble making its voice heard and China is showing its muscles," it said. France's Le Monde headlined a piece on the often-heated talks of more than 130 world leaders: "The failure of the Copenhagen or the limits of world government". "Negotiated in its final version mainly between China and the United States, the accord established the marginalisation of Europe," it said. And it too noted the "rising power of China". The "fight against climate change is frozen," said Spain's right-leaning El Mundo as an Indian Express headline above a picture of three sleeping delegates read: "No big deal, only a face saver at the end." Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said developing countries were using climate change to extract money from their richer counterparts and Copenhagen had merely been the stage "for a fight for redistribution". The summit promised 100 billion dollars for poor nations that risk bearing the brunt of the global warming fallout, although details of the plan are still to be released.

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Dec 20, 2009
US editorial pages gave a cool response Sunday to what President Barack Obama called an "unprecedented" 11th-hour, non-binding deal on climate change during talks in Copenhagen.

The Washington Times lambasted what it called "flop" proceedings between world leaders during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital, calling Friday "Obama's cold day in Denmark."

"The promised treaty -- billed with the characteristic understatement of the alarmist community as 'the single most important piece of paper in the world today' -- was an anticlimax," it said.

"The final three-page version was tossed together in the closing hours with little deliberation and wound up saying little.

"The much-ballyhooed treaty promises next to nothing, other than a 100-billion-dollar slush fund for Third World dictators to 'adapt to climate change,' which probably involves buying mansions in southern France."

The Washington Post said the agreement was not bold, noting that many of the details have yet to be set. But it welcomed a commitment by developing countries to a verification regime as "an important step".

"Governments must do better," it added, pointing to a UN report leaked earlier this month that found that pledged emission cuts would likely allow far more warming than the two degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) threshold beyond which most scientists say global warming could have disastrous consequences.

The newspaper urged the US Senate to take up climate legislation now stalled in Congress.

"Reducing America's dependence on foreign sources of energy and tackling domestic pollution are strong enough reasons to pass a bill," it added. "Vigorous debate should commence."

On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal said the Copenhagen talks offered "a lesson in limits for a White House partial to symbolic gestures and routinely disappointed by reality."

Echoing those sentiments, the San Francisco Chronicle noted the deal was a "face-saving result" and provided "a humbling lesson in complexity, economic rivalries and financial risks."

It urged California to take on the climate change fight and serve as a pioneer in the field.

The Journal called the Copenhagen deal "a pre-emptive dead letter because countries like China, Brazil and India said they were unwilling to accept anything that depressed their economic growth."

Noting that China, the world's biggest polluter, would likely continue to get a "free climate pass," it said "we can't wait to hear Mr Obama tell Americans that he wants them to pay higher taxes so the US can pay China to become more energy efficient and thus more economically competitive."

The White House had earlier sought to rally support for the contentious deal Obama brokered at the UN-backed climate talks by listing prominent Americans who back the plan.

A White House release included quotes from environmentalists, industry leaders and top lawmakers from Obama's Democratic Party praising the "breakthrough" that would "lay the foundation for international action in the years to come."

Michael Eckhart, head of the American Council on Renewable Energy, applauded Obama's "wisdom in achieving an agreement on the aspirational goal."

Nike vice president Hannah Jones praised the president's "sense of urgency and recognition that companies need certainty and a level playing field" to move to a low-carbon economy.

National Wildlife Federation chief Larry Schweiger was more nuanced, noting that although all top polluters have made pledges to cut emissions from the heat-trapping gases, "the deal is incomplete."

The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, hailed Obama's "hands-on engagement," saying it "sets the stage for a final deal and for Senate passage this spring of major legislation at home."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the "critical agreement."

Others were not as charitable.

Bill McKibben, founder of the environmentalist group 350.org, said the final declaration reflected "that small and poor countries don't matter, that international civil society doesn't matter and that serious limits on carbon don't matter."

American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard said Friday that his oil and gas industry trade group agrees with Obama "on the importance of addressing global climate change."

But he criticized the leading proposals in Congress on the issue.

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CLIMATE SCIENCE

China becomes quiet climate kingmaker
Copenhagen (AFP) Dec 20, 2009
China's complicated relationship with the West is casting a cloud over global talks on climate change, contributing to the tepid outcome of the high-stakes Copenhagen summit, observers say. China, the top emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, played its cards close to its chest at the 12-day summit with Premier Wen Jiabao moving little beyond previous statements. But China ... read more

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