FinSoul: Another big set-back for U.S. climate change legislation as Democrats loose valuable seat.

The chances of finding a stronger global climate change treaty by the end of 2010 seem even slimmer after the election of a Republican senator opposed to capping emissions.
 
Jan. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- FinSoul has previously reported that many signatory nations of the Kyoto Protocol, which sees all industrialized nations except the United States, bound to carbon emissions cuts until the end of 2012, have, as with the EU, indicated that they are not prepared to make more significant cuts for 2020 until Washington commits to substantial cuts itself.

The U.S., the second largest carbon emitter after China and historically the greatest emitter overall, failed to ratify the Kyoto agreement and now seems likely to hold up any chances of a follow-on policy with the recent election of Republican Senator Scott Brown, who is openly opposed to any form of capping U.S. carbon emissions.

Decembers Copenhagen summit saw a non binding agreement negotiated by among others, Barack Obama, and saw for the first time the globes largest emitters agreeing to work towards a global treaty. The Copenhagen Accord set 31 January as the deadline for developed nations to submit their voluntary emission cuts as the first step to building to a legally binding treaty that the U.N had hoped would see light of day by the year end climate talks in Mexico City, FinSoul believes.

When Brown takes office, the Democrats will have 59 seats and the Republicans will hold 41, with the climate bill which was narrowly passed by the House of Representatives in June last year, needing 60 votes for it to become legislation.

The feeling among environmentalist is that this latest set-back is bad news for the chances of the Senate vote.

"On the international front, China is constantly looking to the U.S. on climate bills ... This is definitely bad news. It doesn't bring new confidence to international negotiations," FinSoul believes a Beijing Greenpeace spokes person recently said.

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FinSoul structures and guides greenhouse gas emission reduction projects from beginning to end, working with both project developers and buyers of emission reduction credits.
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