POZNAN, Poland — As ministers from 189 countries gather in the coal mining regions of Poland to hammer out a new climate treaty, progress is being sorely hampered by the transition underway in American politics, delegates and experts said.
Many countries are still waiting to size up President-elect Barack Obama’s actual environmental commitment before making bold moves of their own.
“A lot of people think: ‘This is not the time to put our cards on the table. Let’s wait for the new administration. Why agree to anything now?’ ” said Gus Silva- Chavez, a policy expert at the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington.
This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the European Union is struggling to finalize its own climate package this week — hampered by the economic turndown — and so its delegates in Poland have been unusually quiet.
The negotiations are meant to culminate in a treaty to replace industrialized nations’ commitments to reduce emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The United States never ratified that agreement, and its binding terms do not apply to China, India and other emerging powers that are projected to account for nearly all growth in emissions in the next few decades.
