Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Listing the "planet in peril" alongside two wars and the financial crisis in his acceptance speech, United States president-elect Barack Obama has made climate change a priority. There is speculation that a bill aimed specifically at boosting the renewable energy industry may come early next year, before a more wide-ranging climate bill, which is described as "mid-to-long-term solution" on Obama's campaign website.

The goal of Obama's climate plan is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by the year 2050. Under a cap-and-trade programme, emissions credits would be auctioned rather than allocated at no charge to polluters. "Barack Obama could well put off a costly and regressive surcharge until later in 2009 or 2010," reckons Kevin Book at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co in Arlington, Virginia. Noting that Obama is committed to engaging in the international climate treaty negotiations, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, observed that "leadership from the United States on this issue can have a huge impact on the dynamics of these negotiations."

Greenpeace has launched the Forests for Climate (FFC) initiative, which was announced earlier this year. The aim of the initiative is to slow deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The FFC is a non-market mechanism, intended as an alternative to the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation mechanism, which is supported by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

The basis for the FFC will be Tropical Deforestation Emission Reduction Units (TDERUs). Industrialized nations would have to meet part of their emissions obligations using TDERUs. The resulting funds would be used for "capacity-building efforts and for national-level reductions in deforestation emissions." It is claimed that the FFC is "the only mechanism that involves local and indigenous forest peoples' representatives to ensure their rights and livelihoods are respected."

Italy, Poland and other east European nations, concerned about costs, may weaken European Union (EU) plans to cut carbon emissions by a fifth by the year 2020. Last month, Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, threatened to veto the plan in order to protect his nations's manufacturers and auto industry.

East European countries want to be able to continue to allocate free carbon emission permits to their power plants under the EU's emissions trading scheme. Poland also wants a stronger link between the climate plan and energy security. Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, noted that "the entire European Union has understood the need for secure energy supplies." "We want to deftly tie this to the climate package," he continued. Tusk is concerned that "not all the proposals in the climate and energy package increase the security of energy supplies." There is hope that a compromise can be achieved. "We don't want to block or veto anything really and we hope we will be able to agree it in the end," commented Mirek Topolánek, Czech prime minister.