25 September 2009

Washington — While President Obama has pledged a U.S. commitment to lead the campaign against the dangers of climate change through global partnerships, a complicating factor confronting such sweeping international efforts is the need to obtain approval from sometimes reluctant national legislatures.

The United States Constitution authorizes the president to negotiate treaties with foreign governments, but stipulates that the U.S. Senate must ratify them with a two-thirds majority vote before they can become binding on the United States — a requirement that has stymied many presidents’ efforts over the years. That means at least 67 of 100 senators must approve any treaty on climate change and emissions reduction that comes out of this December’s United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting for it to constitute binding U.S. policy.

Although the United States was a signatory to the 1998 Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, it was never ratified by the Senate.

President Obama described a fundamental shift in the U.S. attitude when he addressed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Summit on Climate Change September 22. Obama touted the progress his administration has already made on the issue. “I am proud to say that the United States has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months that at any other time in our history,” he said.

One of the first bills Obama signed into law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, included more than $80 billion for clean-energy investment. Earlier this summer, Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Transportation Department to implement a new policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas pollution by increasing fuel-economy standards for passenger vehicles.

By 2016, all new cars and trucks will be required to average 35.5 miles per gallon (15 kilometers per liter), up from the current standard of 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.5 mpg for light trucks, including sport utility vehicles. This change alone is projected to save 6.8 billion liters of oil.

Another piece of legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year and is awaiting action in the Senate. This bill sets out policy to cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 — targets comparable to those set by European Union nations and other developed countries.

Michael Froman, deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs, called the House bill a “seismic change” in U.S. climate change policy.

The administration has made enacting a climate-change and clean-energy bill a priority in advance of the December Copenhagen meeting to underscore the U.S. commitment to action. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern testified earlier this month before the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming that “nothing the United States can do is more important for the international negotiation process than passing robust, comprehensive clean-energy legislation as soon as possible.”

While the president has expressed confidence that progress is being made to move an energy bill through the Senate, it is ultimately up to Senate leadership, not the president, to determine how quickly a bill moves from its committee to a Senate vote.

Even if an energy bill passes the Senate in the next few months, it is unlikely to be identical to the bill that passed the House in June. The two versions would go to a congressional conference committee where representatives from both chambers work to reconcile the differences. The new bill that emerges from the conference committee then must be approved again by both the House and Senate before it can go to the president for his signature into law.

The constitutional process suggests that U.S. negotiators may have to go to Copenhagen without the guidance of a national law limiting emissions. This is not stopping the momentum in other areas of the government, however.

“We want comprehensive energy legislation, but in the meantime we’re using the laws on the books to make a very important down payment,” said Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change. In addition to the new fuel economy standards, the EPA on September 22 made final the first mandatory reporting requirement for facilities to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. The requirement takes effect January 1, 2010.

“Taken together,” Obama said, “these steps represent a historic recognition on behalf of the American people and their government. We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations.”

A transcript of Obama’s remarks to the climate change summit is available on America.gov.