Hot air is a greenhouse gas
The press is breathlessly reporting Bush's seeming change of heart on the global warming issue. He's proposing a series of negotiations among the 15 most polluting countries in the world (including India and China) which would establish "goals" for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The negotiations would last for 18 months, just a few weeks shy of Bush leaving office in January 2009.
Goals are not binding, they are not targets, and they are not connected to any meaningful consequences. Goals are an empty gesture, and this White House knows it.
The White House is trying to run out the clock on the issue, so that it becomes the next president's problem:
"The White House is just trying to hide the fact that the president is completely isolated among the G-8 leaders by calling vaguely for some agreement next year, right before he leaves office,"Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said in a statement.
National Wildlife Federation President Larry Schweiger called the plan "is an attempt to muddy the waters for the next president."
"If President Bush were serious about this plan, he should have offered it six years ago when he rejected the Kyoto treaty,"' Schweiger said in a statement.
Amen to that.
David Roberts said:
As you can see -- and as you would expect -- this announcement from Bush is not a genuine change of heart on climate change. The U.S. still will not agree to any emission reduction targets. It will not agree that the developed countries bear primary responsibility for climate change. It will not sign on to the growing consensus among developed nations about how to tackle the problem.
Read all of Roberts's post. He lays out the critique pretty well.