Those Americans at the China US Climate Change Conference who are paying most attention to legislators believe that with 93% of Americans saying they consider climate change serious, though differing as to when and how serious, there will be climate change legislative action starting January 2007, or possibly January 2009.
Then this announcement came from Pew Center on Global Climate Change:
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee today (May 23) approved a sense of the Senate resolution calling for U.S. participation in negotiations under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to establish mitigation commitments for all countries that are major emitters of greenhouse gases. The resolution was introduced by Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-Indiana), the committee’s chairman, and Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-Delaware), the committee’s ranking minority member.
Senators Lugar and Biden announced the resolution in November 2005 at an event releasing the report of the Climate Dialogue at Pocantico. The Pocantico dialogue, convened by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, brought together 25 senior policymakers and stakeholders from 15 countries to recommend approaches for advancing the international climate effort beyond 2012.
The resolution approved by the Foreign Relations Committee reads in part:
[B]e it Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the United States should act to reduce the health, environmental, economic, and national security risks posed by global climate change and foster sustained economic growth through a new generation of technologies, by–
(1) participating in negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, done at New York May 9, 1992, and entered into force in 1994, and leading efforts in other international for a, with the objective of securing United States participation in agreements that–
(A) advance and protect the economic and national security interests of the United States;
(B) establish mitigation commitments by all countries that are major emitters of greenhouse gases, consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities;
(C) establish flexible international mechanisms to minimize the cost of efforts by participating countries; and
(D) achieve a significant long-term reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions
The full text of the Lugar-Biden resolution, the Senators’ press releases, and the Pocantico report are available at http://www.pewclimate.org/what_s_being_done/in_the_congress/s_res_312.cfm.
