The future of a US climate law is hanging in the balance in Congress as lawmakers gear up for crucial midterm elections amid a persistent economic slump, experts say.
Further reducing the impetus, the UN-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen ended last month with a non-binding agreement to limit warming to 2°C that did not set binding targets to reduce the emissions of gases scientists say are heating up the world’s atmosphere to dangerous levels.
Among the thorniest problems facing a possible US law is striking an agreement on creating a “cap-and-trade” market for greenhouse gases that would force heavy polluters to buy credits from companies that pollute less, creating financial incentives to fight global warming.
Most Democrats — who enjoy a majority in both houses of Congress — and environmental groups see the proposed system as a cornerstone of the fight against the heat-trapping gases, hoping to reach an international agreement by the end of the year to legally bind other countries to also reduce emissions.
In Copenhagen, US President Barack Obama acknowledged “it is going to be very hard and it’s going to take some time” to reach such an accord. Finger-pointing and sharp recriminations followed the UN summit’s final agreement, which has been widely panned for failing to oblige countries to carry out concrete greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
Todd Stern, the US climate envoy, told investors in New York on Thursday it was “tremendously important” for the Senate to act on some form of climate legislation.
The US House of Representatives has already passed legislation on renewable energy and curbing greenhouse gases, but the Senate has yet to take up its own version of the legislation.
At the UN climate talks, Obama proposed to reduce US emission by 17 percent by 2020 off 2005 levels, an offer that hinges on congressional approval.
“It’s a very difficult environment in the US right now,” said Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations.
He pointed to a tense political and economic climate complicated even more by 10 percent unemployment and a raging debate over a bill to overhaul the beleaguered US health care system, Obama’s top domestic priority.
With November’s elections on the horizon, lawmakers have expressed concerns that US action, absent commitments from China and India, would barely dent the problem while costing jobs, mostly in already struggling industrial US states and others dependent on fossil fuels.
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