Obama Seals $30 Bil COP 15 Climate Deal

"Meaningful" Climate deal reached


The United States, China, India and South Africa have reached a "meaningful" climate change deal that sets a cap on worldwide temperature increases at no more than 2 degrees, contains no binding emissions standards — and a deal one senior administration admitted "is not sufficient" to combat long-term global warming.

The deal was struck after a day of frantic talks — and following a hastily organized multilateral meeting between President Obama, Premier Wen, Indian Prime Minister Singh and President Zuma.

"[A] meaningful agreement was reached," the official said. "It's not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change but it's an important first step... No country is entirely satisfied with each element, but this is a meaningful and historic step forward and a foundation from which to make further progress."

The official added: "We entered this negotiation at a time when there were significant differences between countries. Developed and developing countries have now agreed to listing their national actions and commitments, a finance mechanism, to set a mitigation target of 2 degrees Celsius and to provide information on the implementation of their actions through national communications, with provisions for international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines."

It's not clear how many nations — particularly poorer nations who felt shut out of the process — were included in the final deal or how they will react to the announcement.

Earlier Friday, a visibly angry Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet at China and other developing nations Friday, declaring that the time has come "not to talk but to act" on climate change.

Obama’s public ultimatum kicked off a furious round of bilateral negotiations between the world’s two largest pollution emitters as the conference entered its final hours, with Obama plunging into a pair of bargaining sessions involving Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who had earlier boycotted a larger, multi-nation meeting with Obama.

As night fell in the Danish capital, the talks dragged on, with Obama extending his visit to complete a deal even as a big snowstorm closed in on Washington, D.C.

The outlines of a relatively vague “political” agreement seemed to be taking shape, according to three drafts of possible statements leaked to the press Friday. The latest draft contained a goal of capping global temperature increases to 1.5 percent — a tougher standard than the previous 2 percent threshold in earlier drafts.

Still, there was no hint of the emissions caps that were thought to be critical before the conference began two weeks ago.

On Friday morning, Obama warned delegates that U.S. offers of funding for poor nations would remain on the table “if and only if” developing nations, including China, agreed to international monitoring of their greenhouse gas emissions.

"I have to be honest, as the world watches us ... I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt and it hangs in the balance,” Obama told the COP-15 plenary session, as hope faded for anything more than a vague political agreement.

“The time for talk is over, this is the bottom line: We can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward. We can do that, and everyone who is in this room will be part of an historic endeavor, or we can choose delay,” he said.

He added, “The question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart. … We know the fault lines because we’ve been imprisoned by them for years.”

Back home, senators critical to getting a climate bill through Congress have stressed that developing nations must submit to international monitoring — particularly if they want the U.S. to pay hundreds of billions to help combat the destructive impact of climate change.

"The only way we'll be successful in America is for countries like China and India to make an equivalent commitment," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is crafting a bipartisan climate bill. "We're not going to unilaterally disarm."

While Obama emphasized the U.S. commitment to taking action on climate change, he did not set a deadline for specific Senate action on the climate bill.

Former Vice President Al Gore and other environmental activists have pushed the Senate to pass legislation by April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, in hope of providing momentum to international talks next year.

The lack of specific domestic and international commitments in Obama's address indicated that an international agreement still hung in the balance — even as the talks moved into the final weekend.

Overnight reports that world leaders had agreed to a tentative final climate change deal in Copenhagen were greatly exaggerated — and the outcome of the COP-15 conference was still very much up in the air when Air Force One touched down at 9:01 a.m. local time.

“What’s on the table still has large gaps and unanswered questions," said David Waskow, climate change program director at Oxfam America. "The United States must get more specific to make a real deal possible.”

After addressing the delegates, Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for close to an hour to discuss emissions goals, verification mechanisms and climate financing. The lack of agreement between China and the U.S. — the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters — has been a major stumbling block in the talks.

A White House official described the discussion as “constructive” and said that the two leaders asked their negotiators to get together one on one after the meeting.

Obama had been expected to meet one on one with Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen immediately after landing in Copenhagen Friday morning, followed by an 11 a.m. speech to the conference's plenary session. But recognizing the urgency of the situation, he quickly canceled those plans to sit in on a much larger session with Rasmussen, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, a Chinese representative, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and others.

"There are big problems, it is moving very slowly, and China and India are blocking," Sarkozy told the Danish daily Politiken after leaving the meeting, which broke up at 11:30 a.m.

Weary and frustrated negotiators described a process that still involved the nibbling of policy appetizers at a time when prior conferences were already on to the coffee and dessert of their valedictory speeches.

They warned that none of the several drafts circulating in Copenhagen represented even the bones of a final deal, with many key issues still in flux and time running out. Moreover, U.S. predictions that roadblocks could be thrown up by smaller countries seemed to be coming true, with last-minute objections voiced by Venezuela, Bolivia, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, according to people familiar with talks.

"There are deep differences in opinion and views on how we should solve this. We'll try our best, until the last minutes of this conference," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters as overnight talks ended.

Negotiators from nearly 200 nations, working around the clock, did agree to a broad mandate to cap the global temperature increase from pre-industrial levels at 2 degrees Celsius. But there was no deal on emissions caps or specific carbon cuts, according to officials briefed on the talks.

One key sticking point: a demand by industrialized nations that the document produced here be legally binding, the so-called operational agreement Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about yesterday.

Developing countries, led by China, India and the African Union, still seemed unwilling to sign off on a final document, despite a new deal sweetener that could add as much as $30 billion to the $100 billion annual international fund for poor nations by 2020 outlined by Clinton on Thursday.

An official with a developing nation told Reuters that rich nations were offering to cut their carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, a proposal that had been rejected by developing nations. Developing nations have always insisted on the need for midterm targets.

"The situation is desperate," a top Indian negotiator told the wire service. "There is no agreement on even what to call the text — a declaration, a statement or whatever. They (rich nations) want to make it a politically binding document, which we oppose."

And the U.S. was still wrestling with China and India over international monitoring of their emissions cuts, a sticking point that ground the entire conference to a halt early Thursday.

Danes monitored the progress of Obama's arrival obsessively, with cabbies craning at dashboard TV sets to monitor the approach of Air Force One from distant dot to Obama's arrival. He was accompanied by environment czar Carol Browner, aide Valerie Jarrett, press secretary Robert Gibbs and National Security Adviser Jim Jones.



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Robert Gibbs Argues With Chinese Press

It was media mayhem in Copenhagen Friday. The Chinese press reportedly flooded a meeting between President Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, with many of Robert Gibbs' "people" left in the dust.








Chinese block U.S. reporters from event


U.S. Officials and Journalists attempting to enter the room where President Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were planning to meet in Copenhagen were caught in a chaotic scene that left nearly the entire U.S. press pool outside, and reportedly nearly prevented White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough from entering.

Gibbs attempted to gain access for American reporters after Chinese cameramen pushed into the room, and Chinese security behind then blocked the entrance to U.S. media attending the event.

Told "no photo" and "no press," Gibbs responded: "Hold on. Hold. I've got to get my American guys in because everybody else got in…. My guys have to get just like your guys got in. This is a joint meeting, and my guys get in or we're leaving. …"

One photographer was able to gain access to the room. No U.S. television or print reporters were allowed in to cover the event.



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Obama Reaches Tentative Deal On Climate Change

US, China, India, South Africa reach deal


A senior Obama administration official says the U.S., China, India and South Africa have reached a "meaningful agreement" on climate change.

The official characterized the deal as a first step, but said it was not enough to combat the threat of a warming planet.

Details of the deal with these emerging economies were not immediately clear.

The agreement was reached Friday at the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen after a meeting among President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (MUHN'-moh-hahn sing) and South African President Jacob Zuma (ZOO'-muh).

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been officially announced.

The agreement was with the smaller group of countries, but was being worked by Obama and various negotiating teams with a larger number of countries, the official said.



On the verge of a deal in Copehnagen


President Obama and world leaders are on the verge of finalizing a climate deal that caps the global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees — but punts major emissions decisions until 2012 — after a day of frantic leader-to-leader talks in Copenhagen.

"We're very close," said a person close the negotiations this evening, involving President Obama and leaders from China, Indian and Brazil.

Earlier Friday, a visibly angry Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet at China and other developing nations Friday, declaring that the time has come "not to talk but to act" on climate change.

Obama’s public ultimatum kicked off a furious round of bilateral negotiations between the world’s two largest pollution emitters as the conference entered its final hours, with Obama plunging into a pair of bargaining sessions involving Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who had earlier boycotted a larger, multi-nation meeting with Obama.

As night fell in the Danish capital, the talks dragged on, with Obama extending his visit to complete a deal even as a big snowstorm closed in on Washington D.C.

The outlines of a relatively vague “political” agreement seemed to be taking shape, according to three drafts of possible statements leaked to the press Friday. The latest draft contained a goal of capping global temperature increases to 1.5 percent – a tougher standard than the previous 2 percent threshold in earlier drafts.

Still, there was no hint of the emissions caps that were thought to be critical before the conference began two weeks ago.

On Friday morning, Obama warned delegates that U.S. offers of funding for poor nations would remain on the table “if and only if” developing nations, including China, agreed to international monitoring of their greenhouse gas emissions.

"I have to be honest, as the world watches us ... I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt and it hangs in the balance,” Obama told the COP-15 plenary session as hope faded for anything more than a vague political agreement.

“The time for talk is over, this is the bottom line: We can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward. We can do that, and everyone who is in this room will be part of an historic endeavor, or we can choose delay,” he said.

He added, “The question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart. … We know the fault lines because we’ve been imprisoned by them for years.”

Back home, senators critical to getting a climate bill through Congress have stressed that developing nations must submit to international monitoring — particularly if they want the U.S. to pay hundreds of billions to help combat the destructive impact of climate change.

"The only way we'll be successful in America is for countries like China and India to make an equivalent commitment," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is crafting a bipartisan climate bill. "We're not going to unilaterally disarm."

While Obama emphasized the U.S. commitment to taking action on climate change, he did not set a deadline for specific Senate action on the climate bill.

Former Vice President Al Gore and other environmental activists have pushed the Senate to pass legislation by April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, in hope of providing momentum to international talks next year.

The lack of specific domestic and international commitments in Obama's address indicated that an international agreement still hung in the balance — even as the talks moved into the final weekend.

Overnight reports that world leaders had agreed to a tentative final climate change deal in Copenhagen were greatly exaggerated — and the outcome of the COP-15 conference was still very much up in the air when Air Force One touched down at 9:01 a.m. local time.

“What’s on the table still has large gaps and unanswered questions," said David Waskow, climate change program director at Oxfam America. "The United States must get more specific to make a real deal possible.”

After addressing the delegates, Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for close to an hour to discuss emissions goals, verification mechanisms and climate financing. The lack of agreement between China and the U.S. — the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters — has been a major stumbling block in the talks.

A White house official described the discussion as “constructive” and said that the two leaders asked their negotiators to get together one-on-one after the meeting.

Obama had been expected to meet one-on-one with Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen immediately after landing in Copenhagen Friday morning, followed by an 11 a.m. speech to the conference's plenary session. But recognizing the urgency of the situation, he quickly cancelled those plans to sit in on a much larger session with Rasmussen, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, a Chinese representative, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and others.

"There are big problems, it is moving very slowly, and China and India are blocking," Sarkozy told the Danish daily Politiken after leaving the meeting, which broke up at 11:30 a.m.

Weary and frustrated negotiators described a process that still involved the nibbling of policy appetizers at a time when prior conferences were already on to the coffee and dessert of their valedictory speeches.

They warned that none of the several drafts circulating in Copenhagen represented even the bones of a final deal, with many key issues still in flux and time running out. Moreover, U.S. predictions that roadblocks could be thrown up by smaller countries seemed to be coming true, with last-minute objections voiced by Venezuela, Bolivia, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, according to people familiar with talks.

"There are deep differences in opinion and views on how we should solve this. We'll try our best, until the last minutes of this conference," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters as overnight talks ended.

Negotiators from nearly 200 nations, working around the clock, did agree to a broad mandate to cap the global temperature increase from pre-industrial levels at two degrees Celsius. But there was no deal on emissions caps or specific carbon cuts, according to officials briefed on the talks.

One key sticking point: a demand by industrialized nations that the document produced here be legally binding, the so-called "operational" agreement Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about yesterday.

Developing countries, led by China, India and the African Union, still seemed unwilling to sign off on a final document, despite a new deal sweetener that could add as much as $30 billion to the $100 billion annual international fund for poor nations by 2020 outlined by Clinton on Thursday.

An official with a developing nation told Reuters that rich nations were offering to cut their carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, a proposal that had been rejected by developing nations. Developing nations have always insisted on the need for mid-term targets.

"The situation is desperate," a top Indian negotiator told the wire service. "There is no agreement on even what to call the text — a declaration, a statement or whatever. They (rich nations) want to make it a politically binding document, which we oppose."

And the U.S. was still wrestling with China and India over international monitoring of their emissions cuts, a sticking point that ground the entire conference to a halt early Thursday.

Danes monitored the progress of Obama's arrival obsessively, with cabbies craning at dashboard TV sets to monitor the approach of Air Force One from distant dot to Obama's arrival. He was accompanied by environment czar Carol Browner, aide Valerie Jarrett, press secretary Robert Gibbs and National Security Adviser Jim Jones.



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UN Report Reveals Climate Change Deal Leads To 3C Rise

Leaked UN report shows cuts offered at Copenhagen would lead to 3C rise


The Emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen climate change summit would still lead to global temperatures rising by an average of 3C, according to a confidential UN Analysis obtained by the Guardian.

With the talks entering the final 24 hours on a knife-edge, the emergence of the document seriously undermines the statements by governments that they are aiming to limit emissions to a level ensuring no more than a 2C temperature rise over the next century, and indicates that the last day of negotiations will be extremely challenging.






A rise of 3C would mean up to 170 million more people suffering severe coastal floods and 550 million more at risk of hunger, according to the Stern economic review of climate change for the UK government – as well as leaving up to 50% of species facing extinction. Even a rise of 2C would lead to a sharp decline in tropical crop yields, more flooding and droughts.

Tonight hopes of the summit producing a deal were rising after the US, the world's biggest historical polluter, moved to save the talks from collapse.

The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, committed the US to backing a $100bn-a-year global climate fund from 2020 to shield poor countries from the ravages of global warming. Barack Obama is expected to offer even more cash when he flies in tomorrow.

Another key obstacle – the fate of the Kyoto treaty – was solved, with China and the developing world seeing off attempts to kill the protocol. But the UN analysis suggests much deeper cuts will have to be agreed tomorrow to achieve the stated objective of limiting temperature rises to 2C.

The document was drafted by the UN secretariat running the Copenhagen summit and is dated 11pm on Tuesday night. It is marked "do not distribute" and "initial draft". It shows a gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of carbon emissions between the present pledges and the required 2020 level of 44Gt, which is required to stay below a 2C rise. No higher offers have since been made.

"Unless the remaining gap of around 1.9-4.2Gt is closed and Annexe 1 parties [rich countries] commit themselves to strong action before and after 2020, global emissions will remain on an unsustainable pathway that could lead to concentrations equal or above 550 parts per million, with the related temperature rise around 3C," it says. It does not specify a time when 3C would be reached but it is likely to be 2050.

Greenpeace campaigner Joss Garman said: "This is an explosive document that shows the numbers on the table at the moment would lead to nothing less than climate breakdown and an extraordinarily dangerous situation for humanity.

The UN is admitting in private that the pledges made by world leaders would lead to a 3C rise in temperatures. The science shows that could lead to the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, crippling water shortages across South America and Australia and the near-extinction of tropical coral reefs, and that's just the start of it."

Bill McKibben, founder of the campaign 350.org, said: "In one sense this is no secret – we've been saying it for months. But it is powerful to have the UN confirming its own insincerity." He did not know why his name was written on the top of the document.

However, Bob Ward, at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, said current ambitions could still be consistent with a 50% chance of meeting the 2C target. "But it would require steeper reductions after 2020, which are likely to be more costly, to be well below 35 billion tonnes in 2030 and well below 20 billion tonnes in 2050."

The goal of keeping the increase in global average temperatures below 2C, relative to pre-industrial levels, has become the figure that all rich countries have committed to try to achieve in Copenhagen. However, 102 of the world's poorest countries are holding out for emission cuts resulting in a temperature increase of no more than 1.5C.

Failing to do that, they say, would leave billions of people in the world homeless, facing famine and open to catastrophic weather-related disasters. But such an ambitious target would mean carbon would have to be removed from the atmosphere.

The internal paper says: "Further steps are possible and necessary to fill the gap. This could be done by increasing the aggregated emission reductions [in rich countries] to at least 30% below the baseline levels, further stronger voluntary actions by developing countries [such as China and India] to reduce their emissions by at least 20% below business as usual, and reducing further emissions from deforestation and international aviation and marine shipping."

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Oxfam International's climate adviser, Hugh Cole, said: "At this stage, a deal that fails to keep temperature rises below two degrees is simply not good enough."

Earlier this week Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said that even with 1.5C rises, many communities would suffer.

"Some of the most vulnerable regions in the world will be worst affected. These will be the largest countries in the developing world. They have little infrastructure that might protect them from climate change. The tragedyof the situation is that those countries that have not at all contributed to the problem of climate change will be the ones most affected," he said.

"Some parts of the world, which even with a 1.5C rise, will suffer great hardship and lose their ability to lead a decent and stable form of existence. If we are going to be concerned about these communities, then maybe 1.5C is what we should be targeting. But if we can find means by which those communities can be helped to withstand the impact of climate change with substantial flow of finances, then maybe one can go to 2C."

A UK government spokesman said last night: "The UK government continues to work towards a 2 degree deal at Copenhagen and current ambitions set us on track to meet that target. We know however that more needs to be done before the talks conclude and that's why the Prime Minister, the Climate Change Secretary and British negotiators will be working over these crucial next hours to secure a deal that delivers."



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Obama's Climate Deal Speech, U.S. - China Blamed For Chaos

Pres. Obama's Climate Talks Deal Speech. (Full Speech Text Below)






Pres. Obama In Copenhagen Speech: FULL TEXT


Good morning. It's an honor to for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. You would not be here unless you - like me - were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. That much we know.

So the question before us is no longer the nature of the challenge - the question is our capacity to meet it. For while the reality of climate change is not in doubt, our ability to take collective action hangs in the balance.

I believe that we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of this common threat. And that is why I have come here today.

As the world's largest economy and the world's second largest emitter, America bears our share of responsibility in addressing climate change, and we intend to meet that responsibility. That is why we have renewed our leadership within international climate negotiations, and worked with other nations to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. And that is why we have taken bold action at home - by making historic investments in renewable energy; by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings; and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.

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These actions are ambitious, and we are taking them not simply to meet our global responsibilities. We are convinced that changing the way that we produce and use energy is essential to America's economic future - that it will create millions of new jobs, power new industry, keep us competitive, and spark new innovation. And we are convinced that changing the way we use energy is essential to America's national security, because it will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and help us deal with some of the dangers posed by climate change.

So America is going to continue on this course of action no matter what happens in Copenhagen. But we will all be stronger and safer and more secure if we act together. That is why it is in our mutual interest to achieve a global accord in which we agree to take certain steps, and to hold each other accountable for our commitments.

After months of talk, and two weeks of negotiations, I believe that the pieces of that accord are now clear.

First, all major economies must put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions, and begin to turn the corner on climate change. I'm pleased that many of us have already done so, and I'm confident that America will fulfill the commitments that we have made: cutting our emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020, and by more than 80 percent by 2050 in line with final legislation.

Second, we must have a mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments, and to exchange this information in a transparent manner. These measures need not be intrusive, or infringe upon sovereignty. They must, however, ensure that an accord is credible, and that we are living up to our obligations. For without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page.

Third, we must have financing that helps developing countries adapt, particularly the least-developed and most vulnerable to climate change. America will be a part of fast-start funding that will ramp up to $10 billion in 2012. And, yesterday, Secretary Clinton made it clear that we will engage in a global effort to mobilize $100 billion in financing by 2020, if - and only if - it is part of the broader accord that I have just described.

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Mitigation. Transparency. And financing. It is a clear formula - one that embraces the principle of common but differentiated responses and respective capabilities. And it adds up to a significant accord - one that takes us farther than we have ever gone before as an international community.

The question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart. This is not a perfect agreement, and no country would get everything that it wants. There are those developing countries that want aid with no strings attached, and who think that the most advanced nations should pay a higher price. And there are those advanced nations who think that developing countries cannot absorb this assistance, or that the world's fastest-growing emitters should bear a greater share of the burden.

We know the fault lines because we've been imprisoned by them for years. But here is the bottom line: we can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward, and continue to refine it and build upon its foundation. We can do that, and everyone who is in this room will be a part of an historic endeavor - one that makes life better for our children and grandchildren.

Or we can again choose delay, falling back into the same divisions that have stood in the way of action for years. And we will be back having the same stale arguments month after month, year after year - all while the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.

There is no time to waste. America has made our choice. We have charted our course, we have made our commitments, and we will do what we say. Now, I believe that it's time for the nations and people of the world to come together behind a common purpose.

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We must choose action over inaction; the future over the past - with courage and faith, let us meet our responsibility to our people, and to the future of our planet. Thank you.



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No U.S. - China Climate Change Deal

China tells U.S.: No deal


China’s climate negotiators have told Western counterparts they can’t agree to an “operational agreement” on climate change that President Barack Obama had hoped to bring home from Copenhagen –- and will push for a short, noncommittal collective statement at the end of the talks, according to American staffers briefed on the situation.

It’s not clear if remarks by Chinese officials, made during negotiating sessions on Wednesday night, signal the end of efforts to reach a significant agreement or simply represent an 11th hour bargaining tactic less than a day before Obama was due to arrive in Copenhagen.

But U.S. officials fear it's the former, with little time left to negotiate a real deal before COP 15’s conclusion Friday.

Lead U.S. negotiator Todd Stern told POLITICO late Wednesday that his staff had not engaged in one-on-one “bilats” with China for a whole day – and hadn’t even addressed a major issue, a proposed “border tax” on countries that flouted international accords. That provision was included in the cap-and-trade measure the House passed in July – and no bill omitting it is likely to pass the Senate.

The apparent stalemate coincides with the arrival in Copenhagen of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a 20-member delegation of House members, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had viewed the trip as a triumph following the lower chamber’s summer passage of a sweeping climate change bill.

If China has, in fact, pulled the plug it would deal a major blow to efforts by Democrats in the Senate to revive stalled efforts at passing vitally important companion legislation. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) warned the conference Wednesday that the Senate isn’t likely to move if lawmaker perceive America taking more stringent steps than trading partners and rivals in China and India.

China’s negotiators have been chafing against U.S. and European officials all week, resisting efforts for greater transparency in emissions monitoring and siding with a revolt by poorer nations to force the West to make deeper financial concessions to compensate for global warming.

“I’m not surprised that they are blocking it,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), an opponent of a global emissions agreement who arrived in Denmark Thursday. “China has been voicing these concerns for a long time.”

A western official told Reuters, which first reported China’s intransigence, that Beijing has suggested issuing "a short political declaration of some sort" – although it was unclear what such a document would contain.

China seemed to be moving in that direction on Wednesday, demanding that Western negotiations simplify existing draft agreements.

Closed-door talks continued on Thursday amid tight security at the Bella Center, with many of the non-governmental groups de-credentialed from to accommodate high-level officials from nearly 200 countries.

A hint of hope appeared late Wednesday when the chief African negotiator signaled he was willing to slacken demands for funding of a fund to compensate poor countries hit by global warming. But the mood turned increasingly gloomy as night fell and the snow accumulated on the flash-frozen city.

Britain's energy and climate minister, Ed Miliband, warned that the two-week conference risked becoming a "farce" if it more progress isn't made.

"We may not get there on the substance. It is quite possible we'll fail on the substance. But at least let's give it a try," he said.

Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, told reporters late Wednesday, negotiations had come to an “unexpected stop” but predicted that “the rest of the ride is going to be fast, smooth and relaxing.”

Thursday morning, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, sensing the chances of a deal slipping away, told the conference: "I fear a triumph of inaction over action. Let us instead as leaders resolve to decide for the future."

Pelosi, for her part, had kept her plans to attend Copenhagen secret until the last minute, as the House churned through a series of late votes.

Her delegation includes a handful of Democrats instrumental in crafting this summer’s bill: Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), along with embattled House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who was not on the early lists of possible attendees.

Republicans making the trip include James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), John Sullivan (R-Okla.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

Pelosi is due to speak at a roundtable Thursday morning and will hold a news conference Thursday afternoon.



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Palin vs Arnold: "Greener Than Thou"

Palin fires back at Schwarzenegger


Sarah Palin is hitting back at California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's dig at the former Alaska governor over the issue of Climate Change.

"Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment?" Palin wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday night. "Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation's only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change."

Palin's comments came hours after the California Republican questioned Palin's stance on Climate Change in an interview with the Financial Times at the Copenhagen climate change summit:

"You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish?" said Schwarzenegger, who has backed strict new emissions controls to combat climate change. "Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the (Republican presidential) nomination? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt."

The former Republican vice presidential nominee has questioned whether human activity contributes to climate change, and wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post last week blasting the cap and trade policy promoted by the Obama administration to limit emissions. She has also called on President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen conference.

On her Facebook page Tuesday night, Palin said Schwarzenegger was acting "greener than thou."

"While I and all Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand, I have repeatedly said that we can't primarily blame man's activities for those changes," she wrote. "And while I did look for practical responses to those changes, what I didn't do was hamstring Alaska's job creators with burdensome regulations so that I could act 'greener than thou' when talking to reporters."

Palin also mixed it up last week with former vice President Al Gore, who dubbed her a climate change "denier."

Also on her Facebook page, Palin criticized the former vice president for promoting "doomsday scenarios": "Climate change is like gravity – a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it."



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Copenhagen Boycott Ends, Al Gore Receives Rock Star Welcome

Sarah Palin's Climate Change arguments heat up. She disputes Al Gore's claims of the urgency of signing a Climate Change Global Agreement.

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Al Gore arrives in Copenhagen

As international climate talks appeared in danger of disintegrating, Al Gore arrived to a rock star’s welcome in Copenhagen today.

If Copenhagen is the enviros' Woodstock, then Gore is The Who, the Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival as a one-man band. The former vice president drew such a big crowd that security had to shut down access, with hundreds of unhappy activists left outside.

Inside the mobbed room, Gore watched as Danish and Norwegian officials presented a new scientific report that the sea levels are rising much faster than previous estimates.

“We can feel that global warming is coming to Copenhagen,” joked Jonas Gahr Stoer, Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, alluding to the heat in the crammed room.

Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Per Stig Moeller said the event, organized jointly by Denmark and Norway, delivered a “forceful message. . . that the time for collective action is now.”

Moeller also quoted the 19th century conservative British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, saying that “to be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge,” drawing a chuckle from Gore who, last week, traded barbs with Sarah Palin, describing her as a global warming “denier.”

The former vice president has scrapped a $1,200-a-head fundraiser for 3,000 guests scheduled for later in the week, to the dismay of Danish organizers.





Copenhagen Talks Resume after Boycott

After a boycott led by African nations early on Monday, the Copenhagen climate-change talks have resumed. The point of contention was over whether or not to keep the Kyoto protocol as part of a new deal or replace it with a new treaty.

The developing countries, including china, India, and Brazil, want to keep Kyoto because it requires poor nations to cut emissions less than developed ones; developed countries want to bind emerging economies to targets “We can never accept the killing of the Kyoto protocol,” said the chief delegate for Mali.



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Copenhagen & "Climategate", Political Chaos Heats Up

Sarah Palin's Climate Change arguments heat up.

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G.O.P. criticizes Pres. Obama's proposed Climate Pact deal.

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The battle over Climate Change.

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Arrests, rattled nerves in Copenhagen



Black police vans, with sirens screaming and occupants clutching semiautomatic rifles, barreled past the iconic Marble Church here Sunday, rattling the nerves of climate change conferees trying to enjoy a final break before this week’s intense finale.

That collective flinch — after a weekend of mass protests and arrests — summed up the unsettled mood heading into an unpredictable week of negotiations, demonstrations and speeches by a diverse group of leaders including Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hugo Chavez, Mike Bloomberg, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Barack Obama.

Nearly every international conference concludes with a flurry of backroom talks and cliffhangers — but the United Nations Climate Change Conference has more than its share of looming drama, making for an anxious final week at the big green summit in the big gray Danish capital.

“There really hasn’t been anything resolved during the first week, so this is the week where everything will happen,” said Nick Berning of the Friends of the Earth, a climate reform group critical of President Obama for not adopting more aggressive climate change targets.

“A lot of times they settle the negotiations behind closed doors and wait for the ministers, Cabinet [members] and heads of state to finalize the deals, but not this time,” added Berning. “They have a lot of unsettled issues to resolve, so there will be real negotiations right up to the end.”

The conference, with its 15,000 delegates and media horde, seems to be built on a foundation of sand, shaking with every lowering and heightening of expectations — exemplified by Obama’s on-again, off-again plans for the two-week confab.

With seven inconclusive days on the books, virtually everything of importance remains up in the air.

There’s no agreement yet on binding targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, despite productive pre-conference talks among the United States, India and China.

There’s no deal on how much aid the United States is willing to pay poor countries most harmed by global warming, with Obama seeking $1.2 billion from a recalcitrant Congress despite demands for much more.

Even basic logistics remain undecided. As of Sunday night, key members of the House and the Senate, who hold the fate of any deal in their hands, were unable to commit to prying themselves free from the intensifying health care debate on Capitol Hill.

There’s a very real possibility that congressional climate change heavyweights — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) — won’t make it to Denmark or will stay for only a few hours.

Last week, Democratic House members joked that Inhofe’s presence would be more important than their own, in that the world could see what Obama had to deal with.

But European Parliament delegate Dan Joergensen expressed real disappointment when told that key members of the Democratic delegation might not attend, describing Kerry as a “front-runner” on the issue whose presence at previous climate conferences in Bali and Poznan had moved things along.

“He builds momentum by being there,” Joergensen said. “It’s sad [if] he can’t come.”

Still, only one Democrat really matters, and Obama’s decision to attend the talks this week — as opposed to the sleepy kickoff session — “overshadows everything else,” Joergensen added.

And that raises another big question: Will Obama leave Copenhagen with his “American Idol” status among Europeans, Asians and Africans intact, at a time when his approval rating back home is sagging?

“He has a tremendous challenge of managing expectations this week,” said Jason Grumet, a former Obama environmental adviser who runs the Bipartisan Policy Center, a moderate Washington think tank.

“Most other nations don’t appreciate that our legislative process was built for comfort and not for speed,” Grumet said. “They don’t appreciate the razor’s edge he has to walk with the Senate back home, so there’s a real effort under way just to help countries understand the American legislative process.”

Inhofe, a fiery global climate skeptic from oil-pumping Oklahoma, gave the international community a taste of that process on Sunday by questioning Obama’s right to offer the conference a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

“The president can’t do that,” Inhofe told “Fox News Sunday.” “The emissions reductions he has talked about are what you would find in [the bill passed by the House], and that isn’t going to happen. Of course that bill is dead; it will never even be brought up again.”

But Obama’s team, Grumet said, won’t sacrifice its own agenda to answer critics or appease international admirers. At the top of lead negotiator Todd Stern’s wish list is selling China and, to a lesser extent, India on international monitoring of their emissions, regardless of what the agreed-upon targets turn out to be.

“China’s willingness to accept any kind of verification is far more important than the target. ... Creating a long-term process for oversight is in many ways more important than superficial agreements on emissions or funding because it’s something that provides a foundation for future agreements,” he added.

Hovering over the whole conference are the short-term worries about safety and the possibility that disruptions outside the massive Bella Center on the south side of town will overshadow progress inside.

More mass protests are planned during the critical final days of negotiations, and a handful of violent activists on Friday splintered off from a much larger peaceful demonstration, spurring a major crackdown that led to the arrest of more than 1,300 activists.

On Sunday, convoys of Politi vans raced through the narrow cobblestone streets, pinning tourists on sidewalks, as Danish police raided a second residence they said was being used by “troublemakers” to hoard gas masks, stones and paint.

Still, authorities released all but a handful of the 968 protesters detained Friday, sparking complaints by civil libertarians that the overreaction is worse than the threat.

“We have already said that we cannot avoid that some innocent people will be detained,” said Lars Borg, a spokesman for the Copenhagen police, adding: “We are very sorry about that.”



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Sarah Palin Questions Urgency Of Climate Change Deal...Al Gore Rebuts

Gore: Modern GOP leadership denies global warming issues. With climate change in the news, former Vice President Al Gore strikes back at deniers, particularly Sarah Palin. Gore says “global warming is not a political issue but a moral one.”

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Al Gore rebuts Palin's Climate Change claims

A former vice president and a former vice presidential nominee are engaged in a public battle over climate change, a tiff sparked by Sarah Palin's op-ed in Wednesday's Washington Post and furthered by Al Gore's rebuttal on MSNBC.

In a piece titled "Copenhagen's Political Science," the former Alaska governor charged that "leading climate 'experts'" have "destroyed records, manipulated data to 'hide the decline' in global temperatures, and tried to silence their critics by preventing them from publishing in peer-reviewed journals."

Gore bit back during an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell to air Wednesday afternoon. The former presidential candidate said "the deniers are persisting in an era of unreality. The entire North Polar ice cap is disappearing before our eyes ... what do they think is happening?"

Palin was referring to correspondence between some of the world's leading climate scientists. The e-mails were recently stolen from Britain's University of East Anglia and leaked on the Internet.

Skeptics of man-made global warming say the e-mails prove that scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence about climate change.

Last week, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, said the issue raised by the e-mails was serious and would be looked at in detail.

Palin also took to Facebook to allege that concerns over global warming are "doomsday scare tactics pushed by an environmental priesthood."

Gore said Wednesday that the scientific community has worked intensively on the issue for twenty years. "It's a principle in physics," he told Mitchell. "It's like gravity, it exists."

Palin said she's personally witnessed "the impact of changing weather patterns." But she said that "while we recognize the occurrence of these natural, cyclical environmental trends, we can't say with assurance that man's activities cause weather changes."

"This scandal obviously calls into question the proposals being pushed in Copenhagen," added Palin in The Washington Post. "Our representatives in Copenhagen should remember that good environmental policymaking is about weighing real-world costs and benefits — not pursuing a political agenda."

She added that, in light of the e-mail controversy, President Barack Obama should boycott the upcoming climate change conference in Denmark. "Without trustworthy science and with so much at stake, Americans should be wary about what comes out of this politicized conference," said Palin.

Gore attributed the partisan divide over climate change to the leadership of the modern Republican party, which he feels has adopted a stronger stance on denying global warming.

Gore emphasized that climate change should be a bipartisan issue. "It used to be," he said.

He cited Lindsey Graham as one example of a Republican leader who accepts the science.






Copenhagen's Political Science


With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue.

"Climate-gate," as the e-mails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have become known, exposes a highly politicized scientific circle -- the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen won't change the weather, but they would change our economy for the worse.

The e-mails reveal that leading climate "experts" deliberately destroyed records, manipulated data to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, and tried to silence their critics by preventing them from publishing in peer-reviewed journals. What's more, the documents show that there was no real consensus even within the CRU crowd. Some scientists had strong doubts about the accuracy of estimates of temperatures from centuries ago, estimates used to back claims that more recent temperatures are rising at an alarming rate.

This scandal obviously calls into question the proposals being pushed in Copenhagen. I've always believed that policy should be based on sound science, not politics. As governor of Alaska, I took a stand against politicized science when I sued the federal government over its decision to list the polar bear as an endangered species despite the fact that the polar bear population had more than doubled.

I got clobbered for my actions by radical environmentalists nationwide, but I stood by my view that adding a healthy species to the endangered list under the guise of "climate change impacts" was an abuse of the Endangered Species Act. This would have irreversibly hurt both Alaska's economy and the nation's, while also reducing opportunities for responsible development.

Our representatives in Copenhagen should remember that good environmental policymaking is about weighing real-world costs and benefits -- not pursuing a political agenda. That's not to say I deny the reality of some changes in climate -- far from it. I saw the impact of changing weather patterns firsthand while serving as governor of our only Arctic state. I was one of the first governors to create a subcabinet to deal specifically with the issue and to recommend common-sense policies to respond to the coastal erosion, thawing permafrost and retreating sea ice that affect Alaska's communities and infrastructure.

But while we recognize the occurrence of these natural, cyclical environmental trends, we can't say with assurance that man's activities cause weather changes. We can say, however, that any potential benefits of proposed emissions reduction policies are far outweighed by their economic costs. And those costs are real.

Unlike the proposals China and India offered prior to Copenhagen -- which actually allow them to increase their emissions -- President Obama's proposal calls for serious cuts in our own long-term carbon emissions. Meeting such targets would require Congress to pass its cap-and-tax plans, which will result in job losses and higher energy costs (as Obama admitted during the campaign). That's not exactly what most Americans are hoping for these days. And as public opposition continues to stall Congress's cap-and-tax legislation, Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrats plan to regulate carbon emissions themselves, doing an end run around the American people.

In fact, we're not the only nation whose people are questioning climate change schemes. In the European Union, energy prices skyrocketed after it began a cap-and-tax program. Meanwhile, Australia's Parliament recently defeated a cap-and-tax bill. Surely other nations will follow suit, particularly as the climate e-mail scandal continues to unfold.

In his inaugural address, President Obama declared his intention to "restore science to its rightful place." But instead of staying home from Copenhagen and sending a message that the United States will not be a party to fraudulent scientific practices, the president has upped the ante. He plans to fly in at the climax of the conference in hopes of sealing a "deal." Whatever deal he gets, it will be no deal for the American people. What Obama really hopes to bring home from Copenhagen is more pressure to pass the Democrats' cap-and-tax proposal. This is a political move. The last thing America needs is misguided legislation that will raise taxes and cost jobs -- particularly when the push for such legislation rests on agenda-driven science.

Without trustworthy science and with so much at stake, Americans should be wary about what comes out of this politicized conference. The president should boycott Copenhagen.



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