Everyone at the big Climate Change Conference in Poznan,
Poland is talking about President-elect Barack Obama and how he may help the
global effort to reduce green house gasses. Although he isn’t attending the
U.N. climate talks there, he's still on everyone's mind.
Many of the foreign conversations are punctuating with the
word “Obama”, people there have observed. As one attendee noted, "There
certainly is a buzz."
Obama has excited the U.N. crowd even before taking the oath
of office because of eight frustrating years fighting with President George W.
Bush. Since winning the presidential election, Obama has promised to restore
U.S. leadership in the international climate negotiations while advancing a set
of domestic policies that includes a first-ever mandatory cap on emissions.
"Delay is no longer an option," the
president-elect said last month during a taped video address to a Los Angeles
conference hosted by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"We actually now have a leader in the U.S. that
believes this stuff and wants to help within the international process but also
wants to deliver at home, which is a fundamental," said Jake Schmidt,
director of international climate policy at the Natural Resources Defense
Council. "It's too early to tell in fact how all the dynamics are going to
play. But it's clearly a major significant shift in this process."
But given the broader political realities and a global
economy in a state of turmoil, what can the new U.S. administration accomplish?
World leaders are hoping that their climate policies will get some new life
with President-elect Obama.
"If the United States does not participate, if we don't
agree next year on a sensible international deal, then our efforts in Europe to
lead the way will of course fail," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told
her Parliament last Thursday. "Europe's trailblazing efforts will come to
nothing."
In a letter to U.N. climate delegates in attendance in
Poznan, 18 environmental groups outlined their own strategy for the coming
year. They pledged to keep pushing Obama to complete cap-and-trade legislation
by 2009. And they also expect Obama to use the existing Clean Air Act to reduce
emissions from power plants, vehicles and fuels.
Time will tell how the Obama administration will move
forward. With lots to do and much anticipation, it will be a long road, but one
that the U.S. will finally begin to walk down.
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