“Next US President Urged To Outline Climate Policy” is the title of a Reuters briefing coming from Norway - April 10, 2008, by Alister Doyle in Oslo and Wojciech Moskwa in Warshaw.

OSLO - “The next US president should signal a shift in global warming policies before taking office to help a UN meeting in Poland in December take steps to work out a new climate treaty, Poland said on Wednesday.”

Under President George W. Bush, the United States is the only rich nation opposed to the UN’s Kyoto Protocol capping greenhouse gas emissions until 2012. Many nations expect a shift under Bush’s successor, whether a Democrat or a Republican.

“The American approach is changing,” Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki told a news conference during a visit to Oslo to discuss Poland’s hosting of the main UN climate talks in 2008, in Poznan from Dec. 1-12.

“Unfortunately the Poznan conference is between the election and the (inauguration) of the new president. So it is difficult,” he said. The election is on Nov. 4 and Bush steps down on Jan. 20, 2009.

“We expect at least a declaration from the president-elect, a clear declaration of a changing of attitudes to the entire problem. That could be a very important step for creating a new Protocol,” Nowicki said.

Republican Presidential nominee John McCain and Democratic hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all favour far tougher caps on greenhouse gas emissions than the largely voluntary approach under Bush.

Many nations are awaiting the policies of the next president before deciding their own level of ambition. The United States and China are the top greenhouse gas emitters, mainly from burning greenhouse gases.

Further, Reuters gives as background - POST KYOTO:

Bush argues Kyoto would cost too much and wrongly omits goals for poor countries such as China and India. His administration agreed last year to a UN goal of working out a new long-term treaty by the end of 2009 to combat climate change after Kyoto’s first period.

Under a plan agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in December, Poznan will be the half-way mark towards agreeing a new climate pact in Copenhagen in late 2009 to help slow ever more droughts, floods, melting of glaciers, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

Nowicki said that Poznan should discuss issues such as how to finance the fight against climate change, and to help poor people adapt. UN studies project that developing nations are likely to be hardest hit by disruptions to farming.

“Generous financing is needed to get the developing world into a deal,” Norwegian Environment Minister Erik Solheim said.

Nowicki also said that Poland had commissioned a report for the conference about the possibility, strongly favoured by Japan, for curbs on industrial sectors such as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to produce a tonne of steel or cement.

 www.SustainabiliTank.info.

We even raisesd the question with the US Permanent Representative to the UN - Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad - and he said that from his previous experience in transition of government, he will personally arrange in New York for a Hybrid delegation to Poznan. See:

“The Poznan Meeting On Climate Change, December 2008, That Is One Month After The November 2008 US Presidential Election, Could Spell Out News Of An American Policy Vacuum That Would Doom The UN Copenhagen Road Way - Our News Are That US Permanent Ambassador To The UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, May Have Ideas For A Way Out.”  www.SustainabiliTank.info Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Posted in UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Reporting from Washington DC, Global Warming issues, Real World’s News, Future Meetings, Archives, Futurism, Iraq, Afghanistan |

 http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2008/03…

but now there is talk at the UN that the gentleman may in effect run for President of Afghanistan and perhaps will not even be in his present position by December ??

So, from all of the above - me are glad that the subject has surfaced, but we have doubts that what the Polish Minister said can carry the day.