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The US Senate's inability to pass climate change legislation before
international negotiations begin at COP15 does not constitute failure.
It
would have been preferable to have achieved a final international
agreement on climate change as soon as possible, but as we now know,
this is unlikely to happen by December.
The passage of climate
change legislation in the cornerstone of an international climate
change deal. Although the absence of a binding deal is profoundly
disappointing, the Obama administration has demonstrated its commitment
to reducing emissions.
COP15 can still see the adoption of the
basic architecture for a binding global treaty. The Kyoto Accord
required ongoing multilateral and bilateral negotiations after the
sixth UNFCCC meeting. The process will be extended, as it was in July
of 2001 prior to the signing of the Kyoto protocol.
We will have
an international agreement because the logic driving global cooperation
to mitigate and adapt to climate change is irrefutable. Whether in
December of 2009 or some time in 2010, the goal is to agree on a
binding deal that commits all nations to greenhouse gas reductions.
COP15
is part of a process for structuring an international climate change
agreement. The meeting in Copenhagen is the fifteenth meeting on
Climate Change but it is not the last.
