GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor Vol. 10 No. 45
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GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor
Article 5 of 12
December 04, 2015

Republican Lawmakers Attack Climate Negotiations from Afar

By Abby Harvey

Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
12/4/2015

One week into the two-week global climate negotiations in Paris, Republican lawmakers have yet to head to the French capital, though they continue to decry President Barack Obama’s efforts to clinch a deal from Capitol Hill. GOP arguments against U.S. involvement in the agreement include assertions that national efforts to curb climate change would cripple the economy and that the administration’s climate agenda does not match up with the desires of the American people.

The 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is intended to result in a new global climate agreement. Representatives from nearly 200 countries are present at the event. In the lead-up to the conference, countries submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), public commitments that will comprise the bulk of the agreement. The U.S., in its INDC, has committed to reducing carbon emissions 26-28 below 2005 levels by 2025.

In an editorial published Monday in the Washington Post, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued that the U.S. will not be able to meet its INDC as the carbon regulations on which the pledge relies may be thrown out in court. The Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants, developed under Sections 111(b) and 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, both face numerous lawsuits that have yet to be decided.

“It would obviously be irresponsible for an outgoing president to purport to sign the American people up to international commitments based on a domestic energy plan that is likely illegal, that half the states have sued to halt, that Congress has voted to reject and that his successor could do away with in a few months’ time. But that’s just what President Obama is proposing to do,” McConnell wrote.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) went even further in a commentary posted on the CNN website, suggesting that even if the regulations survive legal challenge, the U.S. still does not have a concrete plan to achieve its commitment. “The administration has repeatedly refused to explain what constitutes the 26 [percent] to 28 [percent] reduction in greenhouse gases, leaving stakeholders, Congress and the American people to speculate about what its intentions are,” Inhofe wrote.

The Obama administration has been pushing for a global agreement built on a legally binding set of procedural measures and non-legally binding targets, as such an accord would not require ratification by the U.S. Senate. However, Inhofe argued, that type of deal would result in “a nonbinding political commitment and no means of enforcement, accountability or longevity.”

The senator urged foreign negotiators to take the promises of the U.S. delegation with a grain of salt. “The President not only lacks support from his own country, but he has no way to follow through on any of his promises,” Inhofe wrote.

Majority members of Inhofe’s committee also pushed against the agreement this week in the form of a 40-page white paper outlining the legal arguments against the carbon regulation, the U.S. inability to meet the INDC, and their opinion on the potential Paris agreement.

“Although the President has already touted COP-21 as a ‘victory’ because countries like China and India have submitted domestic GHG reduction plans, these are mere promises – with no binding enforcement, review mechanism, or accountability measures in place to guarantee they are fully implemented. In fact, most developing countries’ plans are contingent on receiving hundreds of millions of climate financing from developed countries such as the United States,” according to the white paper.

Obama painted a far rosier picture of the agreement and the U.S. contributions this week during a two-day trip to the conference. “I’ve come here personally, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second-largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it,” Obama said.

House Science Committee Debates Climate Impacts of INDC

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee this week hosted a hearing addressing the climate negotiations and reiterating several arguments made at a similar hearing held two weeks ago. Republicans on the committee argue that the U.S. INDC, even if it were met, would contribute little to worldwide climate mitigation efforts.

“The U.S. pledge to the U.N. is estimated to prevent only one-fiftieth of 1 degree Celsius temperature rise over the next 85 years. Incredible. This would be laughable if it weren’t for the tremendous cost it imposes on the American people,” Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said during the hearing.

Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) countered that any progress forward is preferable to no action at all. “An agreement in Paris certainly will not solve our climate crisis but is an important step forward. We need global cooperation from nations of national governments, businesses, and researchers. There may be a difference of opinion around the world about the exact actions we should take but … something must be done,” he said.

Candidates Weigh In

Members of Congress were not the only political figures to offer their two cents on the climate talks. Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Donald Trump both suggested this week that if they were president, they would not have attended the convention.

 “I’m not sure I would have gone to the climate summit if I was president today,” Bush told reporters at a campaign stop in Waterloo, Iowa, according to the Washington Post. “These proposals could have an impact on the here and now, on people that are really struggling right now,” he added. “So I’d be uncertain whether I would attend a meeting like that where it seems the movement is toward policies that will hurt our economy.”

In the Democratic field, candidate Hillary Clinton voiced support for Obama in a Time magazine editorial. “While President Obama has made strong progress cutting pollution and deploying more clean energy in the United States, he faces a Republican Party that alternates between denial of the reality of climate change, defeatism about our ability to do anything about it, and outright obstruction of the tools and programs we need to solve the problem,” she wrote.

Obama, when questioned during a press briefing at COP21, told reporters that if a Republican were to win the 2016 election, that person might have a new perspective on the agreement. “Even if somebody from a different party succeeded me, one of the things you find is when you’re in this job, you think about it differently than when you’re just running for the job,” he said, adding that a president’s “credibility and America’s ability to influence events depends on taking seriously what other countries care about.”

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