U.S. Aims for Legally Binding Climate Change Agreement in 2010

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. said it wants to reach a legally binding climate-change agreement at a summit in Mexico in December, a sign President Barack Obama hasn’t given up the fight for a global accord to limit greenhouse gases.

The pact should cover “all major economies,” and include elements from the non-binding Copenhagen Accord made in December, the State Department said in a letter released today by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC.

With China and India resisting mandatory curbs on their emissions and legislation in the U.S. outlining domestic commitments stalled in the Senate, Obama is attempting to keep the talks alive. A two-year push for a treaty ended in December with a voluntary deal that wasn’t accepted by all of the 193 nations present.

“Mexico is an ambitious time frame, but a year later it’s very possible,” Saleemul Huq, head of climate change at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development said today in a telephone interview.

The fight against global warming has been beset in recent months by the failure of the UNFCCC to secure a treaty in Copenhagen and the resignation last week of its chief diplomat, Yvo de Boer. Impediments to a legally binding deal include the lack of a U.S. domestic law and a reluctance of India and China to adopt mandatory emissions targets.

via businessweek.com

Posted via web from Global Warming News