President Obama Sets U.S. Emissions Reduction Target
On the day before Thanksgiving, President Obama announced the U.S. target for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The announcement also calls for a 30 percent reduction by 2025, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050. These targets are in-line with recent proposals in the Congress and, as reported earlier this week, provide a specific negotiating position for U.S. representatives at the the United Nations climate meetings in Copenhagen, which are scheduled for December 7-18, 2009.
The 17 percent figure is within the parameters set by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to limit the long-term concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million of CO2 equivalent (GHG emissions) and keeping the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius.
Three other climate-related announcements provide reason to give thanks this holiday weekend:
(i) China pledges to reduce GHG emissions
One day after President Obama announced the 17 percent target, China announced plans to cut its carbon intensity (carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product) by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. Implementation of this plan is estimated to cost the Chinese approximately $30 billion annually.
Although the goal does not mean that China will cut its total carbon emissions by 2020 – in fact, China’s GHG emissions are expected to grow along with its economy over the next decade – China’s emissions will increase at a much slower rate as a result of this pledge. In other words, this provides the global community with a promise by the leading developing nation, and carbon emitter, to rein-in its GHG emissions as its economy continues to grow.
Like the United States’ 17 percent target, China’s plan to cut its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 is also consistent with the IEA’s goal to limit GHG emissions to 450 parts per million.
(ii) The White House announces that President Obama will be in the "right place" [Copenhagen] at the "right time" [December 9th]
As reported in a previous post, "President Obama Should Take On A More Active Role In Copenhagen," when the U.S. President traveled to Copenhagen in October to make the case for Chicago’s bid as the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, he was greeted by protestors in the Danish capital with signs that read, "Right Place, Wrong Time."
President Obama had previously told reporters that he would return to Copenhagen later this year to attend the negotiations for a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol (which is set to expire in 2012) only if he could be useful to help "clinch" a deal.
However, with a change in expectations for the Copenhagen meeting, the White House announced this week that President Obama will travel to the Danish capital on December 9th to "work with the international community to drive progress toward a comprehensive and operational Copenhagen accord."
Also making the trip from Washington, D.C. will be Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren, and Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner. These participants will be among 15,000 attendees from 192 nations.
(iii) U.S. and India Agree to Clean Technology Alliance
On November 24th, President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh announced a bilateral "Green Partnership" to address energy security, food security and climate change. The partnership includes a Clean Energy and Climate Change Initiative, which will promote cooperation between the two nations in wind and solar energy, second generation bio-fuels, unconventional gas, energy efficiency, and clean coal technologies including carbon capture and storage.
Specifically, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab will partner with India’s Solar Energy Centre and Centre for Wind Energy Technology to develop technology and aid in its deployment. This is expected to provide rural Indians with distributed solar energy, which can be generated on, or near, the site where the energy is consumed, thus reducing the need for costly transmission lines.
This announcement with India comes just one week after the U.S. and China agreed to a similar clean technology partnership. By negotiating directly with the two largest developing nations, President Obama has addressed over half of the global GHG emissions, which helps clear the way for an international consensus on a post-Kyoto treaty.