Obama Reaches ‘Meaningful Agreement’ on Climate Change

obama-socialist.jpgAccording to Fox News, an administration official said late Friday that Obama has reached a “meaningful agreement” with China, India and South Africa to curb greenhouse gas emissions following a marathon day of talks in Copenhagen.

The official said Obama had delayed his scheduled departure from Copenhagen and was in the final stages of overseeing the creation of a non-binding agreement to cut global greenhouse gases. The deal will prevent global temperature increases of no more than two degrees centigrade by 2020, the official said.

The official acknowledged the agreement is “not sufficient” to combat climate change, but called it an “important first step.”

“No country is entirely satisfied with each element but this is a meaningful and historic step forward and a foundation from which to make further progress,” the official said.

Obama is set to announce details of the agreement in a press conference with reporters before returning to Washington on Friday.
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Struggling to find some success at a chaotic climate conference, the president met with dozens of world leaders and reported progress in talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiaboa — but warned that the U.S. is prepared to walk away rather than accept a ‘hollow victory.”

Obama held two one-on-one meetings with Wen in hopes of sweeping aside some of the disputes that have barred a final deal.

Without mentioning China specifically, Obama addressed Beijing’s resistance to making its emissions-reduction pledges subject to international review.

“I don’t know how you have an international agreement where we all are not sharing information and making sure we are meeting our commitments,” Obama told representatives of the 193 nations in attendance. “That doesn’t make sense. It would be a hollow victory.”

China is the only nation that emits more heat-trapping gases than the U.S. Officials said the two leaders took a step forward in their first set of talks and directed negotiators to keep working.

Wen told delegates Friday that China’s voluntary targets of reducing its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent will require “tremendous efforts.”

“We will honor our word with real action,” he said.

Obama, seemingly acknowledging failure by referring to an emerging political deal as a “framework” rather than an “agreement,” admitted the wide divide that exists between the world’s haves and have-nots meant that “no country would get everything that it wants.”

But House Republican lawmakers attending the summit on Friday said no viable agreement can be reached if third-world countries are not transparent, and stressed that “no deal is better than a bad deal.”

“I respect the president — it’s not his fault that he couldn’t work his personal magic,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“The goals (of the countries), if they’re not irreconcilable, they’re almost that,” he said during a press conference with reporters.

“I don’t think anything beneficial is going to come from this conference,” added Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla., who said no agreement should be drawn from what he called “corrupt” scientific data.

Seeking to quell dissatisfaction with the current deal — which calls for the world’s wealthier nations to transfer about $30 billion over the next three years to developing countries to help them cope with the effects of climate change, increasing to about $100 billion a year by 2020 — Obama said: “There are those developing countries that want aid with no strings attached, and who think that the most advanced nations should pay a higher price. And, there are those advanced nations who think that developing countries cannot absorb this assistance, or that the world’s fastest-growing emitters should bear a greater share of the burden.

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December 18, 2009 · Filed Under Global warming


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