Interview: IPCC’s Pachauri Still Sees Hope for Copenhagen Talks

Despite growing pessimism that a global climate treaty will be signed in Copenhagen next month, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, believes a flurry of last-minute negotiations may lead to an agreement, although the U.S. may not initially be a part of it. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Pachauri expresses disappointment that the U.S. has not yet committed itself to firm greenhouse gas reduction targets. During the Bush administration there was a “complete absence of responsibility” in tackling global warming, Pachauri says, and while the Obama administration is moving swiftly to make up lost ground, climate legislation remains bogged down in Congress. As a result, Pachauri contends, the world community may move ahead with a treaty without the U.S., creating a “small window of opportunity for the U.S. to take a little more time and come back and make its own commitments.”

Read the interview with Pachauri here