As a complement to the UNFCCC process that is building toward agreement in Copenhagen in December (I fervently hope), President Obama called for a series of meetings of the world’s major economies. These economies include the world’s largest contributors to climate change, including the top four of China, the US, Indonesia and Brazil. (Remember that because of deforestation, Indonesia and Brazil are three and four overall.) The reports out of the first meeting in Washington this week were generally positive.
President Bush called a similar series of meetings that were, by contrast, universally decried. I noted here last April, for instance, that German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel’s press release at the time was titled “Gabriel criticises Bush’s Neanderthal speech. Losership, not Leadership.” Gabriel had a different take this time around. Deutsche-Welle’s report quotes him here as saying “…the Americans are no longer standing aside but are participating actively in negotiations about climate protection.” Italian Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo noted a change from China. “Usually the attitude of China was more the attitude of a country asking for something. This time (there) was…a willingness to give a contribution to the process.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered substantive remarks at the meeting. She said “…the crisis of climate change exists at the nexus of diplomacy, national security and development. It is an environmental issue, a health issue, an economic issue, an energy issue, and a security issue.” She also said “…I would hope that we could develop through this mechanism concrete initiatives that leaders of the major economies can consider when they meet in Italy in July. We have to come up with specific recommendations. Breakthroughs can and should come from anywhere and everywhere. That’s why creative diplomacy and genuine collaboration is called for.” (You can see the video of Sec. Clinton here.)
Prestigiacomo, as reported in the Deutsche Welle article, “…said Clinton’s words ‘erased all doubts’ about the willingness of the Obama administration to support the climate fight.”
This summary of the meeting from the State Department notes, among many other things, that there will be another meeting in France in May prior to the leaders’ summit in July. Reuters says U.S. climate talks make progress, with some gaps. This companion piece lays out the participants’ GHG goals.
I noted here what Robert Orr, the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN for Strategic Planning and a key advisor on climate change to the SG, said recently at a forum at the Earth Institute, that having worked with world leaders for several years on this issue, in his view they now have “dramatically increased consciousness.” That’s a nice note, as are the quite positive signals from the first meeting of the Major Economies Forum.
