Barack Obama's US climate bill seen as a step forward

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 May 2009 23.09 BST

The first concrete steps by Congress to fulfil Barack Obama's promise to green America's economy were seen around the world today as a significant step forward, though they remain far short of what scientists say is needed to solve ­global warming.
Democratic leaders in Congress said yesterdaytoday they had defied conventional wisdom that they would be unable to ­persuade representatives from oil and coal, rust belt and southern states to support a bill. The slightly weakened draft now calls for a 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2020. "It's a legislative Susan Boyle. Everyone underestimated it until it started to sing," said Ed Markey, who chairs the subcommittee on climate change.
Democrats hope to finish the draft in a week. Their initial compromise fell short of what some environmentalists in the US and in the international community hoped for. They said it failed to send a strong enough signal of the US commitment to action and would undermine efforts to reach a deal on emission cuts at the UN climate treaty talks at Copenhagen later this year.
But diplomats and environmental policy experts said todaytoday that the bill marked a hard-won victory for Henry Waxman, the California Democrat steering the legislation, in the face of strong opposition from oil, coal and rustbelt Democrats. "I think he has his own fight right now. I don't think we need to get involved as well," said one European official.
Elliot Diringer, of the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change, said the international community would be pragmatic. "I think there is growing recognition internationally that this would [be] very ambitious for the United States," he said.
Diplomats have told America's climate change negotiators that they must see a serious move to cut US carbon emissions if the world is to agree a global deal. The US is the biggest per capita emitter.
The bill taking shape shows a lowered cut for 2020, although it would keep the US ambition to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. It also departs from the original intent of auctioning off pollution permits.
In the current version of the bill, 35% of pollution allowances are to be given for free to power companies. and 15% to cement, steel and other energy-intensive industries. Car makers are to get 3%.
The bill should, nevertheless, still be enough to persuade China, the world's biggest ­polluter, to come on board at Copenhagen, said William Chandler, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "I think it's close enough to the original," he said.
The PR offensive by the oil and gas industry against Obama's green agenda, revealed this week in the Guardian, is likely to intensify next week as Congress begins the formal drafting process.