Has the Obama administration in fact brought an adorable kitten -- in climate diplomacy terms -- to Copenhagen?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swooped into the talks this morning. Before a packed press room, she announced that the United States will commit to a $100 billion adaptation and mitigation aid fund for developing nations by 2020.
This kind of "climate finance" has been a key demand of poorer nations, which argue that they bear the brunt of global warming's human and environmental consequences even though they did little or nothing to cause it.
It's a big negotiating maneuver by the U.S. after the past two days of all-but-deadlocked talks. However, the funding effectively depends upon China's response: whether it will own the burdens of its ascension into the ranks of the major global economic powers, as well as the benefits, and bring the other major developing economies like India, Brazil and South Africa along with it.
The U.S. continues to demand that these up-and-coming developing nations agree to firm, substantial, and binding targets for greenhouse gas reductions, as well as reporting on progress via independent, external assessments.
In addition, developing nations will have to agree to the monitoring of how, and how effectively, they use the funds to both adapt to global warming's impacts and act to curb the progress of climate change.
Without these terms laid out in an "operational accord" by the end of the Copenhagen talks, Clinton said, this "opportunity to mobilize significant resources" to assist developing nations with mitigation and adaptation will be lost.
When asked, Clinton said she could not add detail on how such mechanisms would be defined in a potential Copenhagen accord.
"The advantage of being Secretary of State is that I'm I'm up here at the large macro level," Clinton said with a smile. "It's Todd Stern and the rest of the negotiating team who 'have to get down to the nitty gritty and determine what noun and modifier must be used.'"
Image: My cat Pushkin in Mother Jones' climate cover cat poll.
See more of Emily's reports from Copenhagen as part of OnEarth's ongoing coverage.
The last, best chance for the children is "now-here". Let's hope those with power to create the colossal ecological mess that is now presented to humanity will agree to help clean the global mess up before it is too late for human interventions to make a difference.
Human-induced challenges can certainly be acknowledged, addressed and overcome by human-driven action.
Emily Gertz's reporting is inaccurate. She says that Clinton said the U.S. will commit to $100 billion in funds. This is not true. Clinton said the US will "participate" in a $100 billion fund. That means the actual US contribution will, by historical comparisons, be about $20 billion. But this is contingent on other countries pitching in. Please correct this.
Alan, I believe you're correct, that Clinton said (last Thursday) the U.S. would help establish the fund, not contribute the full $100bn.