Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen- by Paul Bernier

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Dec 9 2009) Cap and Trade , Carbon Footprint , Carbon Tax , Emissions

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   President Obama heads to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. While there, he’s expected to commit to lowering U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020.

    For all the talk about the environment, the United State currently lacks national regulations around greenhouse gases, although 29 states have adopted or are considering such legislation, and the House in June passed a bill addressing this issue, according to the ICT Green Report recently issued by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).

    This goal that the President is expected to put on the table in Denmark can also be found in the Waxman-Markey bill that made its way through the U.S. House of Representatives back in June. The Senate is now doing work of its own on this front. That said, Obama is clearly expecting this legislation to become reality so he can deliver on the promise.

    And, it should be noted, the President has met recently with leaders of China and India, who are tops in greenhouse gas emissions growth, to discuss climate change and the Copenhagen event. So by offering a commitment of his own, the goal is clearly and admittedly to bring some of the world’s other large polluters along on the eco-friendly ride.

    “This could be one hell of a global game changer with big reverberations here at home,” said Sen. John Kerry. “For the first time, an American administration has proposed an emissions reduction target, and when President Obama lands in Copenhagen it will emphasize that the United States is in it to win it.

     “By announcing a provisional target, contingent on the support of Congress, the President has defined a path to an international agreement that challenges the developed and developing nations to fulfill their obligations,” Kerry went on to say. “It lays the groundwork for a broad political consensus at Copenhagen that will strip climate obstructionists here at home of their most persistent charge, that the United States shouldn’t act if other countries won’t join with us. It is an enormous shot in the arm for those of us working overtime to get a comprehensive bill passed in the Senate. And the fact that the President will attend the Copenhagen talks underscores that the administration is putting its money where its mouth is, putting the President's prestige on the line.” 

   At the National Broadband Plan hearing on Energy & the Environment held Nov. 30 at MIT, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, said that if the House legislation he sponsored along with Rep. Henry Waxman, goes on to become law it will be the most wide-ranging environmental policy in U.S. history and will be on par in importance to what the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (key legislation in which Markey also played a major role) meant to the communications industry.

    

    

   
   

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