Copenhagen Looms

So President Obama is, in fact, making it to the climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, and will make a speech before peacing out to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize. He has also expressed the US's commitment to a 17% reduction (in terms of 2005 levels) in GHGs by 2020.

In the lead up to the Dec. 7-18th event, The Copenhagen Diagnosis was published with the intended audience of policymakers, stakeholders, the media, and the general public, intending to "synthesize the most policy-relevant climate science published since the close-off of material for the last IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report."

Filled with facts on melting ice, rising seas, global warming and the like, the document states, it aims to be a "handbook of science" to prepare participants for climate change negotiations.

While I see the importance of compiling the latest scientific findings on climate change, I think that the debate has shifted from "we doubt this is an actual phenomenon" to "we just don't see how we can swing changing our behavior and our economies so that we do not reach the 'tipping point.'" While presenting the reality of the situation and stressing the need to act now is of vital importance, at the end of the day these negotiations are a twisted ball of political decisions. What I would like to see is a similar document penned by economists that tells how economies will in truth be affected by striving to reduce emissions so that parties cannot simply claim that enforcing standards will destroy the economy. What I would like to see is work done by political scientists relating to the politics of bargaining and what techniques should be employed by heads of state and other individuals involved in these negotiations. I'm talking in the mainstream, not just published in books.

The environment is a political issue and drumming up the scientific facts will not give the final push towards action at the US congressional level nor on the global scene.  

 
See also, Economist: "See you in Denmark: America and China announce targets for carbon emissions to take to Copenhagen"