Brad Penney, Director of Government Relations, Alliance to Save Energy
Last month’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen left many feeling that the international community had dropped the ball on addressing the world’s rising greenhouse gas emissions and the need for clean energy in the growing global economy.
Forecast of U.S. Climate Change Legislation: Cloudy
Stateside, the political climate doesn’t look as good as it once did for action on legislation that would cap U.S. emissions, dashing hopes that America might lead other nations to take the same step.
It is encouraging that President Barack Obama expressed strong support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation in his State of the Union address on January 27. Earlier this month the National Journal Experts Blog speculated on whether there was still hope for a cap-and-trade bill this year.
Though there is still time for Congress to forge a bi-partisan compromise on climate legislation in this session, most experts believe energy and climate legislation would have to be completed in the first six months of this year, given the mid-term elections, leaving open the possibility that the world may wait years more to see a new international agreement on climate change.
A Silver Lining?
However, a delay in global action on climate change would not mean that international progress on clean energy will halt indefinitely.
Lost in the plethora of instant analysis about COP15 is the fact that it spurred a number of related agreements between nations that will initiate crucial investment in the clean energy around the world.
This means that the pace of progress on energy efficiency and renewable energy will increase, not decrease, between now and the next UN climate negotiations – and every investment made now will make action on climate change more feasible down the road.
Getting Climate REDI
Among these agreements are several that focus on deploying energy efficiency around the world. During the December climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the launch of the Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI), a five-year initiative of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF).
The initiative is designed to quickly promote and deploy clean energy technologies to fight energy poverty in developing countries, complementing longer-term climate change mitigation aid that was pledged. The United States has committed $85 million to Climate REDI, of which $35 million will go to programs to deploy LED technology, incentivize efficient equipment and appliances, and provide a clearinghouse of resources on clean energy. Other nations will contribute a total of $250 more.
Stay Tuned
Of course, this agreement and others like it alone will not come close to solving the massive climate crisis that confronts the world. But I think they will both plant the seed of energy efficiency in communities that are just beginning to become major energy consumers, and lay the groundwork for global action on climate change.
As Anjali Jaiswal wrote on NRDC’s Switchboard blog, “While the Climate REDI fund and the U.S. midterm financing commitment for mitigation and adaptation is clearly not enough to fully support a global energy transformation, it is a starting point.”
What is your forecast for international action on climate change and clean energy? Where will we be one year, or even five years from now? What needs to change? Send us your comments!
Tags: clean energy, climate mitigation, Copenhagen, energy efficiency, United States