China Environmental Law

If you read just one Poznan prelude article it should be this Bloomberg article: Japan, U.S. Seek to Divide Developing Nations at Climate Talks.  This effort that will have to be pursued in some form or another if there is any hope for achieving a deal in Copenhagen a year from now. 

Japan and the U.S. will try to jumpstart global-warming talks this week by proposing that some of the biggest developing countries, including China and India, agree to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases

“There are certainly a number of countries that need to be part of the mix, even though they are still categorized in some fashion as developing countries,” U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Environment and Science Claudia McMurray said in an interview in London. “China and India are the ones that always are named.” 

South Africa’s environment minister is adamantly opposed to any “differentiation” of “developing countries,” but quite frankly, who cares?  China and India will also express strong opposition to the plan, but they would rather have a deal reached with them than without them, so ultimately I think they will be willing to explore the concept. 

Such breakthrough is imperative if there is any hope of progress:

“You never get agreement on the things that really matter in the climate negotiations until the traditional negotiating blocs break up,” said James Cameron, a lawyer who represented 37 small island states during the Kyoto Protocol negotiations.

Articles (or at least propaganda) which tout China’s “progressive stance toward climate change” should be avoided.  From the press reports, Greenpeace is a leading cheerleader for this storyline.  I quite frankly don’t understand what their agenda is.   

There is obviously a lot happening on the climate change front this week, once I get a read on how things were left at Poznan, I’ll try to weigh in again.