Yesterday in Copenhagen, 15,000 delegates from 192 countries filled the cavernous meeting room of the Bella Center to commence the much-anticipated UN Climate Change conference. In the months leading up to the conference, hopes were slowly lost that a legally-binding global agreement would be reached in Copenhagen. By the time the conference began, world leaders had lowered expectations – due in no small part to the stall of U.S. legislation in Congress – to merely creating a politically-binding blueprint for concluding a comprehensive international agreement in 2010.

In September, PSA released a statement signed by 33 prominent Republicans and Democrats urging Congress and the Administration to “develop a clear, comprehensive, realistic and broadly bipartisan plan to address our role in the climate change crisis.” The signatories warned that “if we fail to take action now, we will have little hope of influencing other countries to reduce their own harmful contributions to climate change, or of forging a coordinated international response.” The Senate has already failed to deliver legislation prior to the conference, but it is not too late for the U.S. to take the lead in the negotiations, especially since it will be impossible for a global consensus to emerge from Copenhagen without strong U.S. support.

President Obama will join many other heads of state in Copenhagen on the conference’s final day with an offer to cut U.S. emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. China and India have also proposed reduction targets of 40-45% and 20-25%, respectively, in the “carbon intensity” of the economy – or carbon emissions per unit of GDP – by 2020, which will not actually result in any tangible reduction in emissions as long as these countries’ GDPs continue to rise. None of these commitments satisfy the 25-40% emissions cuts sought by the UN and deemed necessary by leading climate scientists.

PSA’s statement also urged that “we must also help less developed countries adapt to the realities and consequences of a drastically changed climate. Doing so now will help avoid humanitarian disasters and political instability in the future that could ultimately threaten the security of the U.S. and our allies.”

In the days leading up to the conference, the U.S proposed a global fund, operating under the World Bank, which would devote billions of dollars to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. While the level of funding remains an extremely contentious issue, the structure of such a fund is a critical first step, and the initiative taken by the U.S. is a positive sign.

Significant progress in Copenhagen can lay the foundation for action in the Senate and for a legally-binding global agreement in the next year. The next two weeks in Copenhagen present an enormous opportunity for the U.S. and the world to move toward these goals in confronting global climate change. The world must act now, and the U.S. must lead.

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