Beijing Softens Stand on Emissions Cap

U.S. NEWS AUGUST 6, 2009

Beijing Softens Stand on Emissions Cap

By SHAI OSTER

BEIJING -- China signaled a slightly softer position on accepting a cap on the emissions that cause global warming, despite expressing frustration at the lack of a breakthrough on climate-change talks.

Disagreement over whether China and other developing countries should accept such emissions caps is a key impediment to negotiating a successor pact to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change in time for a planned December meeting in Copenhagen. China and the U.S. in recent months have made reaching a deal in time for Copenhagen a central element of their bilateral relationship.

Yu Qingtai, China's special envoy for the climate-change negotiations, emphasized the importance of reaching a deal. "The talks on climate change have been going on quite slowly. We only have a few months left before Copenhagen," said Mr. Yu, who welcomed efforts by the U.S. to pass a domestic climate bill. "The nature of the problem is such that we can't afford a failure."

Replacing the old pact, which expires in 2012, will be high on the agenda when U.S. President Barack Obama meets Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York in September, and again when Mr. Obama visits China later in the year.

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August 6, 2009, 2:46 PM ET

Cap and Trade: Ten Democratic Senators Call for Carbon Tariffs

By Keith Johnson

Okay, forget all that nonsense about how coal, or nuclear power, or natural gas will decide the Senate’s debate over the climate bill. It really seems to be boiling down to trade.

Today, ten Democratic senators sent President Obama a letter demanding a “level playing field” for U.S. manufacturing in any climate plan. In plain English: If you want your climate bill, you better include “carbon tariffs” to make sure U.S. jobs don’t scurry off to unregulated China.

The list of senators includes some heavyweights, but all are swing votes for the bill—Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin of Michigan; Robert Byrd of West Virginia; Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania; Evan Bayh of Indiana; and Al Franken of Minnesota. Without the support of these lawmakers, you can stick a fork in the climate bill—it’s done.

“Any climate change legislation must prevent the export of jobs and related greenhouse gas emissions to countries that fail to take actions to combat the threat of global warming comparable to those taken by the United States,” http://brown.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ClimateChange_Manuf.pdf">reads the letter.

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