But in the Senate the part is far from over

Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen. The US President will participate on December 9 at the climate summit, held in the Danish capital from 7 to 18 December, and it will not come empty-handed. The White House announced yesterday that the President "is ready to put on the table, under a comprehensive agreement including robust reductions on the part of China and other emerging economies," a proposal to reduce us emissions of greenhouse of 17 by 2020 compared to 2005. The White House reminded the will of Barack Obama to reduce these emissions 83 by 2050, compared to 2005, with intermediate targets of 30 per cent in 2025 and 42 in 2030. While the chances of a substantial agreement seemed very thin these days and very few still believed in the coming of the American President, captured by the records of the Afghanistan or the reform of the health, the announcement of a strong involvement of the second polluter of the world (behind China, which has the double) radically changes the deal. It can help move China, which refuses to sacrifice its growth by accepting binding objectives for the reduction of polluting emissions. Beijing reiterated that the Chinese per capita emissions represent between one third and one-fifth of those of developed countries.

Dangerous game

The decision to Barack Obama immediately was hailed abroad. Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, welcomed this decision, as the French Minister for ecology, Jean-Louis Borloo, or the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso. For Jake Schmidt, of the Natural Resources Defense Council organization, "this decision will help the Conference in Copenhagen to get ambitious acts on the part of all countries." Of course, Barack Obama, who will travel to Copenhagen on December 9, either on the eve of the day where it is to receive his Nobel Prize for peace in Oslo, is not present at the time to meet the heads of State, the 17et 18 December. Of course, the objective of reducing emissions by 17 by 2020 from 2005 advanced by the United States is found to be well below what is necessary. This is equivalent to a reduction of 6 only from 1990. By comparison, the EU is committed to cut 20 its own emissions compared to 1990, and even 30 if other developed countries make comparable commitments. This decision is not less a bold bet on the part of the US President, facing a sharp decline in popularity. The objectives that it will be on the table correspond to the text of Waxman-Markey Bill passed in June by the House of representatives. But in the Senate, the part is far from over. The text proposed by Senators Boxer and Kerry is more ambitious: it proposes a reduction of 20 of emissions compared to 2005, but it will not vote before 2010. And the outcome of the vote is very uncertain, as he faced the hostility of the Republicans and the Democratic majority. In particular, of the 20 Senators of democratic mineworkers States, determined to refuse all market of binding CO2 quotas. Putting pressure on Congress, Obama plays an even more dangerous game that the debate on the reform of health, its priority number one, has not yet started in the Senate. There are strong chances that number of Democratic senators, who have played the game on this reform, will feel exempt from any obligation on the climate, very unpopular reform in their States. That said, do not go to Copenhagen and not state objective in the short term have placed Barack Obama cantilever with its commitments and with the countries which have set their own goals. And he knows that he must pass reforms that take him to heart before the end of the mid-term elections in November 2010.