U.N. Climate Chief Warns Against Expecting Strong Commitments from U.S.

The U.N.’s climate chief is tamping expectations that President Obama’s negotiators will make any strong commitments when international climate talks resume this weekend. While Obama has promised stronger action on climate change than the Bush administration, the economic recession looms over the discussions in Bonn, where 190 nations are meeting from March 29 to April 8 to work on a pact to be acted upon in Copenhagen in December. “People are very excited to see the U.S. back,” Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said. “Of course, they’re not coming back with a blank check.” After his election, Obama proposed the U.S. reduce CO2 emissions by 15 percent to 1990 levels by 2020 as part of the U.N. treaty. But Todd Stern, Obama’s chief negotiator in the climate talks, said this month that the U.S. could not make the steeper cuts set out by the U.N. Climate Panel, since it was now “beyond the realm of the feasible.” According to a Guardian report, unnamed Obama officials have warned that the president may have to delay signing on to the climate agreement in Copenhagen because of stiff congressional opposition.