U.S. lawmakers blocking Copenhagen efforts

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.