This morning, President Obama announced a deal with Chinese President Hu Jintao on clean energy that is already being labeled, not a half step on the road to Copenhagen, but possibly more important than Copenhagen. Significant pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place: clean energy (details below the fold), an agreement to put emissions targets on the table at Copenhagen, financial assistance for developing countries, and deforestation reduction.
Significantly, the Washington Post reports that the "Obama administration will offer numerical emission reduction targets as part of next month's negotiations, as long as the Chinese offer a climate proposal of their own." Or:
Inhofe PWNed!
The AP reports:
Using language that went further than before, Obama said the aim of the summit "is not a partial accord or a political declaration, but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations, and one that has immediate operational effect."
He said an all-encompassing agreement "would be an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution to our climate challenge."
First, details of the clean energy program contain good news requiring China to be more transparent in its accounting, although bad news in the continued emphasis on "clean coal" and shale gas.
- Greenhouse gas inventory. A memorandum of cooperation between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and China’s National Development and Reform Commission sets out avenues for collaboration on capacity building in climate change, with an initial focus on helping China to develop a robust, transparent, and accurate greenhouse gas emissions inventory.
- Joint clean energy research center to focus on building energy efficiency, clean coal including carbon capture and storage, and clean vehicles.
- Electric vehicles, including demonstration projects in a dozen cities.
- Energy efficiency.
- Renewable energy.
- 21st century coal. The two countries will "launch a program of technical cooperation to bring teams of U.S. and Chinese scientists and engineers together in developing clean coal and carbon capture and storage technologies." The Presidents also welcomed a package of announcements on public-private partnerships in advanced coal technologies.
- Shale gas exploration in China.
- Nuclear power. The two countries reaffirmed the goals of the recently-concluded Third Executive Committee Meeting of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership to promote the peaceful use of civilian nuclear energy.
- Public-private partnerships on clean energy. A new U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP) will work on collaborative projects in renewable energy, smart grid, clean transportation, green building, clean coal, combined heat and power, and energy efficiency.
All emphases are mine; details and factsheets at Department of Energy announcement.
Although it was widely reported this weekend that a full legally binding agreement at Copenhagen would not be possible, the actual joint statement danced right up to the edge of "legally binding":
The United States and China, consistent with their national circumstances, resolve to take significant mitigation actions and recognize the important role that their countries play in promoting a sustainable outcome that will strengthen the world’s ability to combat climate change. The two sides resolve to stand behind these commitments.
Previously, China had promised to undertake mitigation efforts at home but would not commit to an international agreement, nor would it agree to make its commitments transparent. Already Jake Schmidt at NRDC is noting subtle yet important shifts in global warming positions by the two countries.
I've previously diaried Chicago hardball politics, but this might be the best smackdown of all. Senator James Inhofe (R-A River in Egypt) has led fellow Republicans in whining and moaning that the United States can't possibly commit to a specific emissions target when China won't do anything. Obama might have just boxed in Inhofe. If China agrees to an emission target, Republicans' ostensible reason for refusing to enact a climate bill has just collapsed. (For only one example, today Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) complained that "You mean it’s not the failure of the People’s Assembly in China or the Parliament of India to pass laws cutting down on CO2, it’s only America’s fault, blame America first?") If China commits to a specific number, the Senate can do no less, or bear sole responsibility for the collapse of the world's best chance to avert climaticide.