Climate change: Senate Democrats may delay legislation

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 September 2009 01.59 BST

Democratic leaders in the Senate said last night they may wait until next year to take up climate change legislation, jeopardising the prospect of reaching a deal to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of global warming.
The delay would prevent Barack Obama from delivering on his promise of demonstrating firm US commitment on climate change action in advance of negotiations at Copenhagen next December.
The setback arrives at a critical moment in the home stretch of the negotiations, with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, telling the Guardian that world leaders needed to show stronger leadership if they want to reach a deal at Copenhagen.
In a briefing with reporters, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said Democrats wanted to push ahead on healthcare reform this year before taking up climate change.
"We are going to have a busy, busy time the rest of this year," Reid said. "And, of course, nothing terminates at the end of this year. We still have next year to complete things if we have to."
Such a delay means that America would be unable to send the strong signal it is ready to act to cut its greenhouse gas emissions that has been demanded by other big polluters such as China and India. That in turn would imperil the prospects of coming to a deal at Copenhagen to halt warming in time to avert dangerous rising of temperatures and sea levels, and severe droughts.
Reports of Reid's comments caused instant dismay among environmental organisations which have organised an unprecedented effort to build support in the Senate and among the American public for climate change legislation.
"It's really distressing news," said Jennifer Haverkamp, who follows international climate negotiations for the Environmental Defence Fund. "What this does is it gives a lot of other countries the excuse they may have been looking for to hide behind the US inaction."
With time running out before the meeting in Copenhagen that is designed to seal an international climate change deal, Ban had been looking to the summit of nearly 100 world leaders at the UN next Tuesday to break through the distrust between rich and poor countries.
"We are deeply concerned that the negotiation is not making much headway. It is absolutely and crucially important for the leaders to demonstrate their political will, leadership, and to give clear political guidelines to the negotiators," Ban told the Guardian. "They should be responsible for the future of this entire humanity."
But Reid's statements now look set to dominate the summit, and intensify the focus on whether the US will be prepared to make the cuts in carbon emissions needed to tackle climate change, and persuade India, China and other countries to follow its example.
Climate negotiators, while praising the Obama administration for its support for climate change action, have said repeatedly the US needs to follow up on such promises with concrete measures to reduce carbon emissions.
The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill last June, but it will not become law until passed by the Senate, and signed by Obama.
Diplomats say that without signs of movement in the Senate it will be even more difficult to restart the bogged down climate negotiations.
Todd Stern, the state department envoy, acknowledged as much last week, telling Congress: "Nothing the United States can do is more important for the international negotiation process than passing robust, comprehensive clean energy legislation as soon as possible."
There is also widespread concern a delay to next year would make it even more difficult for the Senate to take up difficult legislation, such as climate change, before congressional elections in November.