Stock photo of Senator Ed Markey
Here's a small and rare bit of good news on the global warming front, Scientific American reports Most Worst-Polluting Countries Now Have Laws to Combat Climate Change. Apparently Senate Democrats are scheduled to release a report indicating that 61 nations, out of 66 studied,have enacted legislation to slow down climate change.
The analysis of 66 countries, including E.U. member states, accounting for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions finds that 61 have passed climate and clean energy laws. All told, there are now more than 500 laws addressing climate change worldwide -- compared to less than 40 when the Kyoto Protocol, the world's first global warming treaty, went into effect nearly two decades ago. ...
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) will unveil the report at a high-level summit in the Senate Russell Building, joined by Democrats Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Lawmakers from dozens of countries are expected to attend, with leaders from Steiner to U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres making a push for even more domestic action before 2015. ...
China, by contrast, has established its 12th five-year plan, which includes targets to reduce the country's carbon intensity by 17 percent by 2015; decrease energy intensity by 16 percent; increase the share of non-fossil fuel primary energy consumption to 11.4 percent; and increase forest coverage by 21.6 percent, the report notes.
The United States is one of the five countries of the sixty-six studied that has not adopted such legislation, although the report notes that President Obama has used his executive powers to regulate coal burning plants.
While this is an encouraging step in the right direction, the report also emphasizes that these laws are not expected to be sufficient to prevent our planet from increasing by 2 degrees over pre-industrial levels, thought to be a threshold for "catastrophic" climate change.
4:51 PM PT: Reuters has just reported on Senator Ed Markey's statement in, Domestic climate laws on the rise, a boost for pending UN action. Reutors reports that Senator Markey spoke to an audience of over 100 legislator, from 50 countries in the Senate's Kennedy Caucus room.
Countries that together account for most global greenhouse gas emissions have passed nearly 500 laws since the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty was signed in 1992, with emerging economies leading many of the recent efforts, according to a report released by the Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE) and the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. ...
Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who had co-authored a comprehensive climate-change bill when he was a U.S. representative, said the study should encourage the U.S. Congress to enact its own climate legislation. The bill co-authored by Markey had passed the House of Representatives in 2009 but died in the Senate a year later.
"We need an international movement to pass climate legislation, and nowhere is that movement needed more than here in the United States," Markey said.
The round of negotiations on the global treaty is scheduled next month in Bonn. The lack of leadership by the United States has been a disappointment to many, but with hard core opposition from the Republicans our political system is in gridlock.
4:59 PM PT: I guess I should disclose that Senator Ed Markey is one of my favorite Democratic leaders and I've voted for him at every opportunity I've had going back decades, if I am remembering correctly. I've promised him I would support his work in any way I could, but I've been careful not to let that sway me in this report. His excellent leadership needs no boost from me here.