State Department Official Says Copenhagen Accord 'Quite Good'

Advisors to President Obama had prepared a text that would have dealt with the failure of world negotiators to reach a compromise on climate change, E&E News PM reported. Jonathan Pershing, a senior State Department official, evaluated December's international climate-change talks in Copenhagen during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, his first public remarks since the summit ended, E&E News PM reported. Pershing called the Copenhagen Accord "really quite good" and said that it contained "much of what we want substantively in a next-step kind of architecture."


The goal of limiting global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels was a solid beginning, he said, but he noted that some smaller island nations had called for a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Pershing was quoted as saying: "It was clear to me from the negotiations that one of the difficulties we currently have is that the art of the practical and possible isn't yet at the same level of the understanding of what we think the science might require."


Although the Accord does not set a specific year for global emissions to peak, in deference to concerns from China and India, Pershing said it does pressure developing economies to outline their emissions reduction commitments and open their records for verification, which he said were major concessions when compared with past climate talks.


The U.S., European Union, Japan and Australia have not dropped their goal of developing a legally-binding treaty, but hurdles remained, Pershing said. "The question is, 'What form would be acceptable to major players?' Because I think for anyone, you can imagine a legally binding agreement that doesn't have any consequences. That doesn't get you very far. That doesn't satisfy everyone. Conversely, you can imagine a legal agreement that has substantial consequences that countries couldn't ratify. That also doesn't get you very far," he said.

Pershing said he remained hopeful that Congress would pass climate-change legislation this year. He was quoted as saying: "I think the current hope is we have it fairly soon in the first half of the year. We'll want to see how that plays out. And in that case [of no law in 2010], we'd have to start working on alternatives if it doesn't happen. But at the moment, we're optimistic that things will continue to move forward."