Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU climate chief pessimistic after US visit

  • The Congress: US climate legislation has all-but stalled (Photo: Wikipedia)

EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard has ended meetings with her various US counterparts dejected by uncertainty as to whether Washington will be able to pass badly-needed climate legislation in time for a summit Mexico.

"It's very, very nervous times. People don't know, will it fly or will it not fly," she told reporters in the American capital on on Thursday (18 March), a day after she had met with climate special envoy Todd Stern, climate and energy 'tsar' Carol Browner, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson and a clutch of senators and congressmen.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"The feeling that I got yesterday was that, well, not too many want to bet on the timing and what could be the outcome," she said.

US legislation in the climate area has all but stalled, with the Obama administration focused on a debate about healthcare and this year's mid-term elections.

Without Washington able to pass laws to match Mr Obama's international greenhouse gas emission reduction pledges, reaching a binding international deal this year by December's UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, will be impossible.

"What we hear coming out of the American discussion, coming out of Beijing, coming out of Delhi, maybe also Mexico, [is that] it would be difficult to get all the details set [for such a deal]," the EU commissioner said.

The US has pledged to reduce its emissions by 17 percent on 2005 levels by 2020. Most other powers however, including the EU, use 1990 as the baseline year. Using the same measuring stick, Washington would cut emissions by four percent on 1990 levels by 2020.

If the country cannot achieve even this at the congressional level, the chances of a global deal become ever more unlikely.

The Obama administration does have a plan B, should the bill be defeated.

In 2007, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency, a government regulatory body, has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Instead of legislation forcing industry to cap its emissions, the EPA could simply regulate that they must do so.

Asked about the plan B, Ms Hedegaard was not optimistic and feared that the EPA, should it choose to do so in the absence of climate legislation, would almost certainly be faced with a series of lawsuits from enterprises affected by its enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us