Obama's Climate Policy Will Give U.S. Leading International Role, Kammen Says

The election of Senator Barack Obama as president of the United States on November 4 will change the strategic situation for the international climate negotiations leading up to COP15. It will also give the U.S. a leading international role in the negotiations, and it can change the way it historically has addressed – or so far largely not addressed – the climate crisis.

This analysis comes from Daniel M. Kammen, Professor in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkley, a Copenhagen Climate Councillor, and Senior Energy and Environment Advisor to President-elect Obama.

Kammen's optimism is founded in the energy plan put forward during the election campaign by then-Senator Obama. Under the plan, Obama aims to create a clean energy sector which will create 5 million new "cleantech" jobs, 1 million hybrid cars, and an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.

Implementation of the Obama's plan should help the U.S. play a more central role in the international climate negotiations, argues Kammen. "A new president has to push for the U.S. entering in a new and more leading international role when it comes to the climate negotiations."

Domestic policy will lead the way

A change in the U.S. administration should pave the way for a sharp change in its domestic climate policies. Interest in climate change issues has clearly evolved and deepened over the last couple of years. Members of the U. S. House of Representatives and Senate, for instance, are now much more engaged with issues of energy security and climate than just a few years before.

There are plenty of votes (and money), Kammen believes, for whomever pushes for  positive action that frees the U.S. from its dependence on coal. Many states have set individual clean energy targets – so-called Renewable Portfolio Standards – but not all.

"To achieve something as sweeping as a new climate policy government has to play a more active role in solving the climate issue. As they do in solving the global financial crisis. Ironically, this crisis shows that there is a need and an opportunity to invest in sectors like clean energy, because they do produce new jobs," says Kammen.

Obama's "New Energy for America" plan focuses on four main issues, which will involve an active role by the federal government:

• Provide short-term relief to American families (e.g., energy rebates);
• Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined (e.g., get 1 million hybrid cars on the roads by 2015);
• Create 5 million green jobs (e.g., 10% electricity from renewable sources by 2012 and 25% by 2025);
• Reduce GHG emissions by 80% by 2050

Will Obama administration be ready for 2009?

Optimism aside, Obama's administration will need to work exceptionally hard to be ready to enter an international climate agreement by the end of 2009, owing to the very short time between inauguration of the President-elect, in January 2009, and the UN Climate Summit, in Copenhagen, in December of that same year.

Add to this the discord within the European Union over its proposed climate and energy package. Not all member states want to sign up to the outlined cap-and-trade deal because they claim it is too expensive for businesses already hurt by the financial crisis.

The EU dispute does not advance efforts to tackle climate change in the U.S, argues Kammen.

"Every time you get people pulling back on promises it doesn't help new actors. Hopefully, the broader discussions leading up to Copenhagen will be more positive. We need to commit to long-term climate actions, and not just pull back because we are in a short-term financial crisis. The climate crisis is about our children and how we leave this Earth for them."