The United States and China are likely to sign a new
bilateral agreement to combat climate change during President Barack
Obama’s visit to Beijing in November, Washington senator Maria Cantwell
said on Friday.
Cantwell, who is in Beijing to discuss clean energy and intellectual property issues with Chinese officials, said a deal between the world’s two biggest CO2 polluters would also help build global confidence in the efforts to curb global warming.
“If you are producing 40 percent of emissions — which is what China and the United States are together — what a legacy, and what a great relationship you could create by saying that’s what these two great countries stepped up to do,” she told reporters at a briefing.
While not a surprise to my regular readers (see “Exclusive: Have China and the U.S. been holding secret talks aimed at a climate deal this fall?“), this Reuters story is another important sign that the Obama’s mid-November visit to China may be a critical milestone in achieving a national and global climate deal. Indeed, if this agreement has real substance, as I expect it will, then it will boost the chances for Senate passage of the climate and clean energy bill. And that means a Senate vote should not occur beforehand.
If Obama is serious about solving the climate problem — and will put political muscle behind getting 60 votes to block the inevitable, immoral conservative filibuster — then he should use the momentum of any China agreement to get a Senate vote in early December before the big international climate negotiations:
A month later, leaders gather in the Danish capital of Copenhagen to thrash out the details of a new global climate change compact, but Cantwell said a wide-ranging bilateral agreement between China and the United States would be easier to achieve.
“I’d place higher odds on the ability of the United States and China to reach an agreement than I would on us passing legislation or on having Copenhagen agreed,” she told reporters in a briefing.
She also said there was a “50-50 chance” that the U.S. Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as the Waxman-Markey bill, would be passed by the end of the year, but said the legislation needed to be “streamlined” and simplified.
China is concerned that the bill, which has already been passed by the lower house of Congress, will give future U.S. administrations the authority to levy “carbon tariffs” on countries deemed not to have made equivalent efforts to reduce their greenhouse gases.
Cantwell said she was opposed to tariffs, but said however the final bill looked, the crucial part would be “putting a price on carbon” in a way that would create massive economic opportunities for both China and the United States.
She also said she thought China had underestimated the resolve of the United States to “make the transition” to a low-carbon economy.
A 50-50 chance is what I’ve been saying, but again, Obama — and only Obama — can increase those odds. As for the resolve of this country to make the transition to a low-carbon economy, we will find out in the next few months just how resolved we are.
Ironically, this country’s only hope of stopping China from becoming the clean energy giant of the 21st century — leading the world in jobs and exports in low carbon technologies, many of which were invented in this country — is passing the climate and clean energy bill.
Related Posts:
- Peaking Duck: Beijing’s Growing Appetite for Climate Action
- China softens climate rhetoric, commits to emissions peak (again), shows flexibility on Western reductions.
John McCain’s troubles are the world’s troubles
Comments
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megaloptera Posted 6:55 pm
09 Sep 2009
Energy-intensive industries want more CO2 permits (Wednesday, September 9, 2009) Saqib Rahim, E&E reporter
"Energy-intensive businesses will push to raise the number of free emissions permits they get under a federal cap-and-trade system, representatives from two of the industries said.
The climate bill passed by the House in June, put forward by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), gives 15 percent of all permits, for free, to energy-intensive industries that are especially vulnerable to international trade. The share would decrease by about 2 percent each year, starting in 2014, before being phased out in 2025.
As legislation moves through the Senate, industry representatives say they want to convince Congress to provide more free permits. Not only will they need assistance to pay for carbon, they will argue, but they also need a buffer in case the cap-and-trade bill makes energy prices go haywire."
Do you think Senators Boxer and Kerry will stand up and say no to more giveaways? I sure don't think that's politically feasible for them, if they want to please the President they will have to make more concessions to industry to get a bill. A vote for this bill is the immoral vote - and if it dies on a filibuster that's even better.
It's quite obvious that an ACESA cap and trade type bill will not save the planet: in fact it will do more harm than good - to both the planet and our most vulnerable communities. That's why we're headed to Arkansas to meet with Senator Lincoln this week to let her State Director know that a vote against the climate bill is a vote for the planet and social and environmental justice. We launched our Climate SOS tour on September 1, and here is our report from the Heartland.
PRESS RELEASE: Climate SOS Tour to “Kill The Bill†Has Successful First Stop in Bismarck, North Dakota
September 9, 2009, Indianapolis, Indiana. The Climate SOS Heartland Tour Team made its first stop on September 8 in North Dakota and met with the staff of Senators Conrad and Dorgan. “We got a tremendous reception from the Senators’ State Directors and staff,†said Duff Badgley, Tour Leader. “We are looking forward to our meetings tomorrow in Indianapolis with Senator Bayh and Lugar's staff,†he said. “Then it’s on to Little Rock where we will meet with the State Director for Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln, who is the newly appointed Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Senator Lincoln is against cap and trade, and we want her to know she has our support on this issue,†said Mr. Badgley. The Senate Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over large parts of the Senate climate legislation.
Climate SOS is a grassroots network of environmentalists, scientists, and social justice activists who are taking a stand against the upcoming Senate climate change bill and making a four state car-free tour to demand new climate legislation that is grounded in science instead of politics. The group is made up of committed activists and volunteers – no astroturfing here.
Climate scientist Dr. James Hansen endorses Climate SOS and says a Senate bill based on the U.S. House American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA), will be "worse for the environment than doing nothing."
Climate SOS says cap-and-trade cannot forestall the climate crisis, more effective means are needed, and social justice concerns must be central to any climate legislation. Climate SOS says a ACESA type cap and trade bill will:
• Prevent the U.S. from making its fair share of greenhouse gas reductions.

• Lock the U.S. into a complex cap-and-trade scheme that benefits fossil fuel utilities, Wall Street, and agribusiness.

• Use public money to subsidize the most polluting industries, drawing much needed financing away from real climate solutions.

• Add more polluting smokestacks, especially in backyards of the poor, people of color, and indigenous communities by grandfathering dirty old coal plants, permitting many new ones, and subsidizing incinerators as a form of renewable energy in the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).

• Trigger rainforest destruction in Africa, the Amazon, and Southeast Asia by failing to include indirect land use change provisions in the bills biofuel Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS).
To contact the Climate SOS Tour on the road, call Duff Badgley, cell 206 619 6304 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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