Labor & Employment Law

In Climate Change Talks, Decisions Frozen on Key Issues

By admin

Lauren Aspen of IUE-CWA sends us this report from the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 40 U.S. union members are part of a 400-member global union movement delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Read our previous blogs on the climate change talks here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.  

Anticipated to be the culminating moment in reaching a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, these talks have instead become a circus where thousands are stranded outside and a rotating group of participants inside gives the process a cold shoulder.

Officials began to ratchet down expectations early in the second week of negotiations, outlining a two-step resolution with a high-level operating agreement to be signed in Copenhagen and the final agreement?with all those pesky details?to be completed in 2010. Now with just a few days to go, even that scenario may be optimistic, as China’s government appears determined to torpedo any agreement. Whether this is just the renowned China posturing is still to be seen.

One thing that appears to be certain is that U.S. action on climate change hinges on Copenhagen. Just yesterday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who fully understands the implications for the world and to our nation if no action is taken, called Copenhagen ”critical” to any Senate action. A group of congressional staff echoed that outlook. 

The problem is that our elected officials will not act if they don’t feel confident that countries like China and India will live up to their end of the bargain. And that has been one of the big fights here: whether the world has the right to measure and verify emission output. 

China and India are adamant they will not allow this type of transparency. But without it, many fear they will claim an unfair competitive advantage as U.S. products begin to reflect the true cost of carbon emissions.

Yet inaction gives China almost as big of a competitive advantage. In fact, some observers believe China’s strategy all along has been to blow up the talks. 

Without a clear policy direction and emission reduction targets to force U.S. action, U.S. businesses will not undertake the research and investment needed to achieve the promises inherent in a clean energy economy. If that occurs, we will sit on the sidelines and cede our economic strength and our country’s future to China.

The parallel fight?and the issue the labor participants are afraid may become a casualty in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement?is border adjustment. A border adjustment is a tariff system which penalizes countries that fail to regulate greenhouse gases in the production of goods. These are a key measure to keep other nations honest, which is why developing nations are dead set against them.

If we verify that targets aren’t being met, but we can’t place a carbon tax on high-carbon products as they cross the border, what is the point of verification?

Still, the answer can’t be to stand aside and do nothing. Border adjustment and verification are important issues. So is saving the earth from destruction.

It is time for everyone to set up to the plate and be fair, honest and responsible. In the past, the United States hasn’t always been so.

When President Obama returns home, he and Congress must continue the leadership they have established here. Although labor expects and will demand that workers are treated fairly in this process, we also expect and demand the United States move forward on this issue.

If we as a nation become the ones frozen on the outside of history, we all will lose.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 18, 2009 (boomark / email).