220086 Resource 107524 205428 205428 1228781610937 1228781610937 Controlled Will President-elect Obama Assume Leadership in Climate Change & GHG Reduction Efforts?

Big Buzz at the Poznan Conference

Everyone at the big <a href="http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_14/items/4481.php">Climate Change Conference in Poznan</a>, 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.<o:p /> <o:p />Many of the foreign conversations are punctuating with the word “Obama”, people there have observed. As one attendee noted, "There certainly is a buzz."<o:p /> <o:p />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.<o:p /> <o:p />"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. <o:p /> <o:p />"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 <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>. "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." <o:p />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.<o:p /> <o:p />"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."<o:p /> <o:p />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. <o:p />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.<o:p /> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 10 application/xml false cap and trade legislation climate change natural resources defense council obama administration poznan conference reduce ghg U.N. Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.18) Gecko/20081029 Firefox/2.0.0.18 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 jwuebben 74.202.198.130 false true false false true 205814 false false true false false false true 107524 blog blogsite/Enviance/web