U.S. Climate Change Exceptionalism

U.S. Climate Change Exceptionalism

Darrel Moellendorf: U.S. Climate Change Exceptionalism

In a joint letter yesterday to the Financial Times, Le Monde, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the center-right governments of England, France, and Germany called for a 2020 European greenhouse gas emissions target 30 percent below 1990 levels. This ups the ante of the European position taken in Copenhagen last December. There Europe called for 20 percent reductions from 1990 levels by 2020 and expressed willingness to go to 30 percent if other developed countries would follow suit.

Predictably, the United States did not follow suit in Copenhagen. Its ?commitment? was for a 17 percent reduction against 2005 levels, about 3.75 percent below 1990 levels. This was really no commitment at all since the legislation that would enforce it may never be passed. Currently the Senate is busy trying to cobble together support for a much weaker proposal, and the Obama administration has failed to use the massive oil spill that angers everyone as an occasion to push hard for tough climate change legislation.

The rationale for the European position is interesting: in the midst of a recession–with emissions already falling–there is an opportunity to orient the continent toward the more ambitious reduction target, thereby securing European competitiveness in the coming low-carbon global economy.

Believing that economic prosperity and serious climate change mitigation can be complementary is not a right-wing position. But it is a position that neither Democrats nor Republicans have vigorously defended. I take it that this is not because they are insufficiently right-wing. And presumably European politicians are also subject to pressures from industries that will suffer from increased production costs–which makes U.S. exceptionalism on the matter all the more perplexing and discouraging.