Todayโs Greenwire culls the wires to report (password required) that:
At the National Press Club yesterday, Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, expressed doubts the Bush administrationโs [climate change] summit Sept. 27-28 would amount to much within the larger framework of international climate negotiations. โWhat kind of deal are they hoping to set up?โ she asked. โBy all appearances, a very weak oneโฆshe complained that Bushโs plan to forge a โlong-term aspirational goalโ for reducing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions would mean little if it leaves out any program to enforce those commitments from the individual countries.โ
So, Bushโs agreement would be not very much within the larger framework of, well, not very much (Kyoto) โ no one new has dared to join the latter after 10 years and 11 negotiationsโฆoh, sorry, forgot that Belarus was bribed in a couple of years back with a promise that Europe would buy their 60 million tons springing from an economic collapse, and theyโll surely need every ton of it โ and it would be a weak agreement put to shame by comparison with an unenforceable, not complied with, non-emission-reducing powerhouse of a pact (again, Kyoto).
Oh, and by Bushโs agreement only targeting the top 15 emitters it covers โa small subset of countriesโ, not like the 34 that Kyoto boasts of covering; you know, Iceland, Belgium, Slovenia and Slovakia. At this point I begin looking around to see if Alan Funtโs camera is trained on me as I read.
Meanwhile, the EU issuing a position paper โ theyโre quite good at that โ is treated respectfully. Maybe Bush should issue a position paper to show heโs serious.





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