Flawed climate accord good for Obama at home

[FarCenter]

US President Barack Obama gives a press conference at the Bella Center in Copenhagen on December 18. It will not cool the globe, but the new world climate accord may temper Washington's political heat for Obama and it has crucially given him a deal he can defend at home.

Interactive graphic on a checklist of 10 warning signs of global warming in the run-up to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen from December 7-18.

Staff of the United Nations prepare to pass out the final agreement to the delegates during the climate summit COP15 at the Bella Center. It will not cool the globe, but the new world climate accord may temper Washington's political heat for Barack Obama and it has crucially given him a deal he can defend at home. AFP - It will not cool the globe, but the new world climate accord may temper Washington's political heat for Barack Obama and it has crucially given him a deal he can defend at home.

The US president engineered the compromise with rising powers China, Brazil, South Africa and India, at the tense UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

"For the first time in history all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change," Obama said, putting the best possible spin on an agreement that many said fell short of the summit goals and what science demands to stem global warming.

An obvious flaw: the pact is not legally binding, and while it commits to limit warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) it fails to set targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

But that very omission may make the accord palatable in Washington, where climate change scepticism is rising and critics warn Obama's energy revolution could squelch frail economic growth.

Obama came to Denmark under pressure to make concessions to Europe and developing states -- but stuck by his offer to only cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

He also dodged saying how much the United States would pay as part of a deal to help developing states tackle warming.

Holding that line may help preserve fragile support for a deal in the US Senate.

<SNIP>http://www.france24.com/en/node/4952273

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. It doesn't really rise to the level of an 'accord'

It says "we should limit the global mean temperature rise to 2 degrees". And "rich countries should give $100 billion, some time before 2020, to poor countries to mitigate the damage that 2 degrees will do anyway".

The 'accord', FWIW: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Environment/documents/2009/12/19/copenhagenaccord.pdf

And the delegates didn't approve that, or adopt it - they just 'took note' of it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8422133.stm