Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

U.S. lawmakers blocking Copenhagen efforts

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 19, 2009 at 11:28 AM
Advertisement

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Failure by U.S. lawmakers to pass laws on climate change is likely to derail efforts to reach an agreement at a Denmark summit, officials said.

World leaders will try to find a replacement regime to the Kyoto Protocol at a December conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year agreed on legislation to cut carbon emissions by 17 percent of 2005 levels by 2020. Their counterparts in the Senate, however, are not expected to move the issue to the floor before the Copenhagen summit.

Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the stalled climate legislation is likely to undermine efforts at reaching a comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen, Emirati newspaper The National reports.

"What's really missing is the U.S. and Canada," he said. "And, in the absence of at least the U.S., I'm not too sure you can get any kind of binding global agreement."

Pachauri said American lawmakers are far behind their counterparts in the industrialized world in moving ahead with appropriate climate-change legislation.

"Europe is pretty much on board, Japan has come up with very ambitious targets, even in the developing countries, the emerging markets, there is at least some indication that their own national action plans will be taken," he said.

U.S. lawmakers said the vibrant debate over healthcare reform is distracting them from moving ahead with other measures.

Topics: Healthcare Reform
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Additional Energy Resources Stories
1 of 20
Cold snap across Europe
View Caption
fark
Mein Kampfy shorts
Protip: Dude, you're supposed to wait until you actually assume your teaching job before making...
Theme of Farktography Contest No. 353: "Apples vs. Oranges 2: The Rematch." Details and rules in...
(Almost) everyone loves the Taiwanese media animations of current news events. Now, learn the cool...
The mail never stops, Jerry
Vulcans dealing with Pon Farr, Microsoft defenestrating 200 workers, and Don Cornelius starting...