Article by Kyle Danish, Shelley Fidler, Kevin
Gallagher, Megan Ceronsky and Tomás
Carbonell
To receive the Weekly Update via email, visit our Sign
Up/Subscribe page
http://www.vnf.com/news-signup.html
Commentary
Through personal intervention in the negotiations, President
Obama salvaged from the Copenhagen talks a 3-page accord. It
achieves – in the geologic time scale of the
international negotiations – a truly seismic shift:
first-time emission reduction commitments from major developing
countries, including China. The accord also includes a major
package of funding for least developed countries. However, it is
woefully short on specifics. In particular, it is vague on the
issue of independent international verification of commitments, but
seems to suggest that countries not accepting funding (such as
China) would not be subject to such verification. This could be a
problem for Senate moderates . . . The Copenhagen talks raise
several questions. Does the
