Palm Carbon Up, Cap & Trade Down

Since Tony Blair's visit to Washington DC this week, reports have been trickling out of the meeting in Germany, at which planning the major components for an updating of the Kyoto Convention were to have been considered by the largest developed nations. The two big items, of course, were: #1) begin to figure out how to get China and India actively involved in a revised Kyoto; and, #2) figure out some means to immediately mitigate against the wide scale torching of rain forests that is being done to feed to the booming palm oil fuel market (mostly a European market matter at this time). The bottom line: the US is actively opposing any type of "command and control" system, and does not want to plan for a revised Kyoto. ""We don't believe targets and timetables are important, or a global cap and trade system," [a US delegation representative] said. "It's important not to jeopardize economic growth."...Speaking on condition of anonymity a senior climate negotiator, party to the talks, said that the US was even stalling progress on negotiations on a successor to Kyoto which had been due to get under way at a summit in Bali later this year. "We were not expecting a big change of stance but we need them to stop obstructing all progress across the board," said the source." Over the last year, the public debate has largely shifted from scientific certainty, to financial and economic impacts. Diplomatic discussions about treaty planning, however, are and will remain inaccessible. Everything is off the record and will remain that way unless government reps become frustrated and speak up "privately". Reporters and bloggers alike will be left to speculate about what was really said and done, without corroboration. In such an environment, conspiracy theories abound. Better to keep our eyes on what constructive actions businesses and state and local governments are up to. Via:: The Independent Image credit: Harlan Watson, US Chief Negotiator, via Energy Audit '06