The following is reaction by environmental groups - and President Obama - to the "Copenhagen Accord" on global warming.Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope calls the agreement "historic" but "incomplete." He praises "President Obama's leadership--all the more remarkable because of the very weak hand he was dealt because of the Senate's failure to pass domestic clean energy and climate legislation." He emphasizes that "there is no argument over the science of global warming or the urgency with which we must act." In the end, Pope believes this "neither perfect nor complete" deal "has given humanity its best chance of preventing the ravages of a warming world," and that now "we must not [let] this chance slip away." I agree with Pope.
Also see Carl Pope's blog for interesting background on how the Copenhagen deal went down.
National Wildlife Federation president Larry Schweiger points out that this agreement at least "keeps the process moving forward to a more effective agreement in 2010," and now the "Senate needs to get busy and deliver the stalled climate and clean energy bill to the president to create jobs and do our share to reduce global warming pollution." I agree, the Senate needs to get moving on this immediately. There are no excuses.
World Wildlife Federation President Carter Roberts says that this agreement "will capture commitments of key countries and achieves agreement on transparency with China - a key contentious issue that has now been solved." According to Roberts, the next step is to "take these announcements and give them life, by passing climate legislation at home, and do so with the urgency that this crisis demands." Again, I agree; if I haven't said it enough times, I'll say it again that the U.S. Congress needs to pass climate and clean energy legislation ASAP!
Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica calls Copenhagen a "failure" and places the blame "squarely on the rich countries whose pollution has caused the climate crisis -- especially the United States."
While I agree with Pica that the industrialized nations - the ones that have been busy emitting greenhouse gases in huge quantities for decades - should bear a commensurate share of the burden in solving this problem, I also believe it's a wild oversimplification to argue that it's all the "rich" countries fault and/or responsibility. The fact is, the non-OECD already emits more CO2 than the OECD, with almost all the projected increases through 2030 coming from non-OECD countries like China, India and Brazil. I also have to say that this whole "rich/poor" dichotomy is another wild oversimplication. Again, the fact is that many non-OECD nations - including China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Russia and India - are not really "poor" anymore (although they might not be "rich" either). In addition, I'd point out that some of those "rich" countries - including the United States - aren't feeling so "rich" these days. Anyway, what useful purpose does it serve to continue dividing the world up this way? I don't believe there is any at this point.
In the end, I agree with this Voice of America headline, that Copenhagen represented a "meaningful first step," but one which also "falls short of what some had hoped for." And I agree with President Obama that this agreement is "not...the end but rather the beginning." Finally, I'd echo what Obama says here:
...Going forward, we're going to have to build on the momentum that we've established here in Copenhagen to ensure that international action to significantly reduce emissions is sustained and sufficient over time. We've come a long way, but we have much further to go.With the Copenhagen talks now behind us, it's now time for action. This is the great test for humanity, let's not blow it!
To continue moving forward we must draw on the effort that allowed us to succeed here today -- engagement among nations that represent a baseline of mutual interest and mutual respect. Climate change threatens us all; therefore, we must bridge old divides and build new partnerships to meet this great challenge of our time. That's what we've begun to do here today.
