The
Obama Administration is planning to introduce a pledge to make additional steep
cuts in U.S. carbon emissions after 2020 in the wake of a little-noticed United
Nations conference on greenhouse gas emissions that is the latest step toward a
new treaty to take the place of the tattered Kyoto Protocol.
Just
how dramatic the American pledge will be is not yet clear. A U.S. official at
the conference taking place in Warsaw —who declined to be quoted directly—told
Fox News that an amorphous White House inter-agency consulting process was
still considering what the next U.S. reduction should be, and wasn’t yet ready
to put a hard number on the table.
Whatever
it is eventually revealed to be, the next emissions reduction target will be
introduced into the labyrinthine, U.N.-sponsored treaty process as itinches
along for two years after the Warsaw meeting that is slated to end Friday. It
will supposedly culminate at yet another major climate session in Paris in
December 2015, where the successor treaty will—supporters hope—be adopted.
The
administration itself says that its forthcoming emissions targets—and
continuing staunch support for the war against “climate change”—are intended
help to kick-start a virtuous competition among nations, spurred on by interest
groups, hosts of non-government organizations, and the sprawling global network
of United Nations organizations to push the faltering climate process away from
the ditch of disinterest where it has increasingly been heading.
That
virtuous competition is part of a new, smorgasbord-style approach that the U.S.
is promoting for future pledges, “ to ensure that each Party is constructing a
commitment that reflects its national circumstances and full capabilities,” as
the administration puts it in a conference submission
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