New U.N. Climate Treaty Expected to Restrict U.S. While Exempting United Arab Emirates and China

Thursday, May 28, 2009

By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer



(CNSNews.com) - A new United Nation's global warming treaty is expected to give some of the world's worst polluters--such as the communist People's Republic of China--and some of the world's wealthiest nations--such as the oil-rich United Arab Emirates--a license to continue freely pumping carbon into the atmosphere while restricting the emissions of the United States.

The United States will be joining other countries next month in attending “climate talks” in Bonn, Germany, in preparation for the United Nations' Conference of the Parties 15 (COP15) climate-change summit that will take place in Copenhagen in December.

At the meeting, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will oversee the drafting of an international treaty that will allow some of the world’s wealthiest nations and worst polluters to avoid the legally binding regulations on carbon emissions and greenhouse gases expected in the document.

Countries categorized by the United Nations as Annex 1 Parties, including the United States and much of the industrialized world, are considered developed nations that will not be harmed by controlling carbon emissions. Non-annex I Parties, on the other hand, are countries considered to be “developing” or have “economies in transition.”

These Non-annex 1 countries such as China – which emits the most carbon emissions of any country in the world, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Top 20 Countries for CO2 Emissions--will be able “sign on” to the treaty but will not be legally bound by it. And some of the world’s wealthiest nations, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are on the Non-annex 1 Parties list.

"It's very political,” Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst on energy and the environment at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told CNSNews.com. “It has as much to do with what nations are willing to accept than per capita wealth or per capita usage of fossil fuels.”

Lieberman said allowing some countries to sign the treaty gives it clout without requiring those countries to actually cut emissions. He also said without some of the worst polluters being held accountable--like China (No. 1), India, (No. 4), South Korea (No. 9), Mexico (No. 13) and Saudi Arabia (No. 14)--an international treaty will not have an impact.

“In terms of trying to solve the problem of global warming--putting aside the question of how serious a problem it is in the first place--the reality is these fast-developing nations are responsible for emissions growth much faster than the U.S.,” Lieberman said. “For example, China’s emissions are increasing six times faster than those in the U.S.

“If you want to be serious about global warming you have to be serious about doing something with these major emitters, both developed and developing,” Lieberman said.

But at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, as reported by CNSNews.com, Obama administration climate-change czar Todd Stern said the administration is committed to working with the United Nations, reversing the Bush administration’s rejection of the 1992 Kyoto Protocol, which would have restricted “developed” countries’ carbon emissions while allowing “developing countries” to avoid those restrictions.

Stern is the special envoy for climate change appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will represent the U.S. in Bonn in June and at Copenhagen in December.

“Countries are genuinely pleased--indeed relieved--that the United States is back in the game, committed to making rapid progress, and, as I said in Bonn [in March], seized by the urgency of the task at hand,” Stern said in his prepared statement at the hearing.

Stern said the U.S. is “fully engaged” with the UNFCCC, based on principles of global partnerships and “moral responsibilities” and expects to sign a treaty in Copenhagen.

“I believe these principles can guide us toward a pragmatic international climate change agreement that will put the world on the path that the science tells us we must be on,” Stern said