Obama holds everyone accountable on climate

Attention turned on Tuesday to president Barack Obama’s first UN speech, as he declared that the US is a serious partner in combating global warming, telling world peers “we are determined to act”.

“It is true that for too many years, mankind has been slow to respond to or even recognise the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own country as well,” Obama said at a climate summit convened by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. “We recognise that,” he added, while seeking to hold everyone accountable.
He said developed nations such as the US have a “responsibility to lead” but rapidly-growing nations like India and China must do their part.

The summit and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh at the end of this week are intended to add pressure on the US and rich nations to commit to cuts and provide the billions of dollars needed to help developing countries switch to clean energy technologies.

The US House passed a bill this summer that would set mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, but a Senate version appears increasingly unlikely this year. The EU feels the US is just dragging its feet. EU officials have grown increasingly frustrated at the US stance, saying it has fallen short on both its level of ambition to reduce emissions and on offering aid to developing nations. The EU is urging other rich countries to match its pledge to cut emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, and has said it would cut up to 30%  if rich countries follow suit.

Neither China nor India say they will agree to binding greenhouse-gas cuts like those envisioned in a new climate pact to start in 2013. They question why they should, when not even the US will agree to join rich countries in scaling back their pollution. “The crisis today on climate change is the inability of the US to put on the table credible emissions reduction targets for 2020,” said environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

China and the U.S each account for 20% of all the world’s greenhouse gas pollution created when coal, natural gas or oil are burned. The EU is next, generating 14%, followed by Russia and India, which account for 5%.

This year, India reacted sharply when secretary of state Hillary Clinton had lectured her hosts in New Delhi on the need for environmental controls, despite the fact that India contributes only 5% of the world’s emissions from burning fossil fuels, compared to America’s 20%.