On the other hand, the EU might believe that accepting the US position could threaten the environmental integrity of the post-Kyoto agreement. This too has happened before. In The Hague in 2000, the climate negotiations collapsed for this very reason.
That was the last international climate conference of the outgoing Clinton administration and the Obama people remember it.
The problem is that both the US and the EU have a point. The EU realises that if global emissions are to stabilise and then decline, the world must have a strong international agreement. And the Obama administration knows only too well that in the face of a recalcitrant Republican party and wavering Democrat senators they cannot afford another Kyoto.
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Ban Ki-moon is right, the negotiations better get moving, because this time around, as the science is telling us, it might be our final chance to get it right.
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About the Author
Between 2006 and 2008 Christian worked as a research fellow at the Australia Institute in Canberra, where he published widely on the economics and politics of climate change. He has appeared on television and radio discussing his research, and his opinion pieces have appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Canberra Times. Christian is currently a PhD scholar at the Australian National University where his research is focusing on the approach of key state actors to compliance during the international climate negotiations.
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