White House climate adviser offers hope after Copenhagen

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 January 2010 22.11 GMT

More considered verdicts of what was -- and what was not - achieved at the Copenhagen climate change summit are beginning to come out. In this the first assessment of the new year from the Obama administration, Carol Browner, the White House environment and climate change adviser, admits that the summit did not live up to expectations. Those who went to Copenhagen hoping for a binding legal treaty, or even an operational agreement, did not get what they wanted.
"But what is important is that you now have China and India among the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions agreeing that it is time to do something," she said today.
Browner's silver lining-in-the-cloud assessment came in a 30-minute White House video chat, which cut out a little early because of a coughing fit. It was the first of four web chats on foreign policy, the economy and other matters.
Some US commentators have argued that the last-minute deal Obama put together between the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa would be just as effective as a treaty because it includes the world's greatest emitters.
Browner did not go that far. She said the focus still had to be on reaching a deal with the full force of international law. The Obama deal -- which left out Europe and more than 180 other countries that were represented at Copenhagen -- was just a step in that direction, Browner said.
"It's an important step and with time the world will find its way to a binding international treaty."
She went on to say that America still needed to do its share by putting laws in place for energy reform.
The reminder is important. The Senate has yet to take up a climate change bill -- in part because Democratic leaders are reluctant to take on a huge battle with Republicans immediately after the bruising confrontations over healthcare. They also have an eye on the mid-term elections next November. It might be smarter politics to come out with a jobs plan for the Democrats to campaign on next autumn.
The Democratic leadership could get even more skittish next week. The Alaska Republican, Lisa Murkowski, is pushing for a vote on 20 January to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. A spokesman for the senator -- who was on her way back from Afghanistan today -- said she was determined to go ahead. A vote against EPA regulation could cast the whole issue of regulating emissions in a negative light.
Some environmental organisations fear it would make it all but impossible to get to climate change legislation this year.
Browner did not get into a timetable for legislation, or the specifics of Murkowski's efforts to block the EPA. But it's interesting to note that the White House is not entirely letting up the pressure on the Senate to act.