The New York Times, in a reprise of its role in the run-up to the Iraq war, is acting as a megaphone for the Obama administration’s spin on the U.N. climate talks. Now that it has become clear there will be no meaningful agreement, the most important goal of the administration is the assignment of responsibility for the collapse of the talks. The Obama administration would like to make sure that the bad guy is identified as China, even though it is the U.S. which failed to sign the Kyoto protocol, still refuses to join it, cannot offer emission reductions in the same range as other industrialized countries, and has been unwilling to commit the level of public finance required to discharge U.S. climate debt.
NYT – doing it’s part to deflect blame away from the U.S.
As you read the postmortems of the Copenhagen Climate Conference over the next few weeks, please keep in mind what these talks were for. The whole point of this process is to limit emissions.
Ask yourself these questions. What country is historically the world’s greatest source of emissions? Which rich, industrial country is offering the least in terms of emission reductions? Which major emitter has never ratified the Kyoto protocol and still refuses to do so?
The answer to all of these questions is the United States. Please don’t drink the Kool-Aid. The United States has been the problem since the beginning of the UNFCCC process in 1992 and it remains the problem to this day.
Stay tuned for a series of pieces analyzing what has happened here in Copenhagen.
