Comments on: Obama to Go to Copenhagen, Announces 17% Target

By: iain

iain — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:35:28 +0000

That’s a 4% reduction from 1990 levels. Which is meaningless.

By: Josh Tulkin

Josh Tulkin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:52:44 +0000

Thanks for posting Ben. They are definitely
sending the whole team. Let the bird-dogging begin.

By: chris

chris — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:28:08 +0000

Hi all!
So i’m the first to say something?! ok… sorry for my english…
Well, i heard the annoncement today and was very suprised! How is it possible for China to accept something like this, and how will this become more than just an annoucement from the US? I hope!
For the moment, i dont know what to think about this… On one side it is a good news because without comitment from the States, nothing will happen in Copenhagen… But on the other way, -17% to 2020 below 2005 (and not 1990!) is a little to “less”, not to forget, the US emission growth was about 1% a year between 1990 and 2005 (+15%) so if you look it’s just more or less about stabilisation (which is better than nothing) and not reduction… and what will happen after 2020 “looks” good but looks also just as an argument to not reduce – to not go behond stabilisation – now… An other question is where these emissions cuts will happen? In the states or also in other countries (via the clean development mecanism for example)? This is very important i think, because, where I live, in Switzerland, our gouvernment plans to make 40-50% of our “reductions” in other countries… (This to say that we aren’t doing much better than the US lol…). A good unilateral regulation for Kyoto came from the Europeen Community which put a max limit on the part of the reductions that can be realized outside the Commmunity’ countries (I don’t remember how much), but in this case one should not forget the “hot air” opportunity…

Hope everyone understood what I wrote.

PEACE from Switzerland

Chris

By: chris

chris — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:25:41 +0000

Hi all!
So i’m the first to say something?! ok… sorry for my english…
Well, i heard the annoncement today and was very suprised! How is it possible for China to accept something like this, and how will this become more than just an annoucement from the US? I hope!
For the moment, i dont know what to think about this… On one side it is a good news because without comitment from the States, nothing will happen in Copenhagen… But on the other way, -17% to 2020 below 2005 (and not 1990!) is a little to “less”, not to forget, the US emission growth was about 1% a year between 1990 and 2005 (+15%) so if you look it’s just more or less about stabilisation (which is better than nothing) and not reduction… and what will happen after 2020 “looks” good but looks also just as an argument to not reduce – to go behond stabilisation – now… An other question is where these emissions cuts will happen? In the states or also in other countries (via the clean development mecanism for example). This is very important i think, because, where I live, in Switzerland, our gouvernment plans to make 40-50% of our “reductions” in other countries… (This to say that we aren’t doing much better than the US lol…). A good unilateral regulation for Kyoto came from the Europeen Community which put a max limit on the part of the reductions that can be realized outside the Commmunity’ countries (I don’t remember how much), but in this case one should not forget the “hot air” opportunity…

Hope everyone understood what I wrote.

PEACE from Switzerland

Chris