Despite repeated calls, beginning at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and continuing through last December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen, for the United States and other developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20-25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, it is now apparent that the U.S. will not even begin that effort for some years to come. (Total U.S. GHG emissions have risen by about 14 percent since 1990.) As a result, other developed countries and the major “emerging economies” (China, India, Brazil, South Africa and others) will be free from any near-term pressure to match the U.S. in implementing GHG reductions.

It is more than 15 months since the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Waxman-Markey climate change bill in June 2009. The Senate has twice failed to move forward on similar legislation, the last version of which, the Kerry-Lieberman bill, was far less ambitious than the House bill. Moreover, the prolonged U.S. recession, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the coming midterm elections have led the Obama administration to virtually abandon its public references to climate change, which has taken a back seat to efforts to deal with regulatory reform, unemployment benefits, “energy independence,” jobs, tax policy, the Middle East and Tea Party fixation.

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