So, Obama, a number of Aisian leaders, and the chairman of the COP15 have just consented to hold off on reaching a climate change agreement this December, opting intead to to reach a less specific “politically binding” agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future. (see the New York Times article below)

Well, my heart is broken but somehow I know that it is better that they admit that they will not have the treaty we need rather than trying to fool us by telling us that another greenwash agreement like Kyoto will solve the crisis.  It's really only confirmed what I've known all along because I know the US was not going to get a climate bill passed before the conference.  And, if the US doesn't have its plan laid out, then Asia doesn't know what to do.

Well, so be it.  Obama still has another 3 and a quarter years and possibly another term left in office.  I can see now why he pushed the climate issue past the econmy and healthcare on his agenda: it's because he wants to do it right.  The climate issue isn't like the other two - it's incredibly complex and extends into the realm of almost all the other issues on the table.  Also, it really does require everyone to be on board and informed without the distraction of an economic or healthcare crisis.

So, while I am saddened, I'm not going to get discouraged.  I am confident that my nation will have its shit together by the mid-point of next year and that a future conference in Mexico City will finally start getting us to where we need to be.

Until then, I will continue to be your ever-vigilant informer.

The link to the full article is here

Leaders Will Delay Agreement on Climate

SINGAPORE — President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the difficult task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month, agreeing instead to make it the mission of the Copenhagen conference to reach a less specific “politically binding” agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future.

At a hastily arranged breakfast on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting on Sunday morning, the leaders, including Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark and the chairman of the climate conference, agreed that in order to salvage Copenhagen they would have to push a fully binding legal agreement down the road, possibly to a second summit meeting in Mexico City later on.

“There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally, legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen, which starts in 22 days,” said Michael Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. “I don’t think the negotiations have proceeded in such a way that any of the leaders thought it was likely that we were going to achieve a final agreement in Copenhagen, and yet thought that it was important that Copenhagen be an important step forward, including with operational impact.”

With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it has, for several months, appeared increasingly unlikely that the climate change negotiations in Denmark would produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming, as its organizers had intended.

The agreement on Sunday codifies what negotiators had already accepted as all but inevitable: that representatives of the 192 nations in the talks would not resolve the outstanding issues in time. The gulf between rich and poor countries, and even among the wealthiest nations, was just too wide.

Among the chief barriers to a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen was Congress’s inability to enact climate and energy legislation that sets binding targets on greenhouse gases in the United States. Without such a commitment, other nations are loath to make their own pledges.

Administration officials and Congressional leaders have said that final legislative action on a climate bill would not occur before the first half of next year.