Copenhagen

Cheers!Yesterday I talked about Obama needing to put on the S suit on the plane on the way over to Copenhagen- he did. While it’s nowhere near what everyone had been hoping for when Copenhagen started to gather steam earlier this year, it is in fact more than everyone had been expecting as the summit grew closer. With deadlocks around emissions cut commitments and monetary contributions from industrialized nations, Obama was walking into a snakepit. But he did it anyway. "This progress did not come easily and we know this progress alone is not enough ... We've come a long way but we have much further to go," said Obama. Read more

The politics leading up the Copenhagen summit in December are fascinating. Major players like the EU, China, Russia and the United States are all jockeying for position, some playing a few cards, some holding them- and I’m sure there is some bluffing going on as we still have almost 6 months to go.

I wrote in Politics Report how the Democrat-sponsored climate change bill is still stalled in committees as lawmakers work to satisfy Democrats, and further satisfy Republican legislators whose votes are necessary to pass the bill through the House.

Russia rang in with a long-delayed play of their own.

The general guideline from green groups and developing nations has been a request that Industrialized nations cut their emissions 25-40% from 1990 levels, a number reached in reference to UN climate scientist panel suggested cuts. Read more