Climate Change: the evoving discourse part II

The U.S.

Something has definitely changed in the nature of the climate change narrative in America. climate change denial is now all but dead. Don't expect anyone to come along and say - oops, we got it wrong...you guys were right all along - but the story is moving.

However, there is still a gulf between the American perspective on climate change and that in the EU. The argument now is that climate change is a real problem and that action is necessary - but the global community has got the wrong approach. Forget regulation, cap and trade etc - climate change will be resolved through technology.

Exxon has moved to this position in the last twelve months. The World Bank has moved in this direction...even the White House is pretty much there now.

It still augers badly for the potential success of any Kyoto II. It seems that similar concerns are rising on this side of the Atlantic also. Nick Stern, at a talk in Oxford yesterday, raised concern that attempting to bring the entire global community down this path together with one collaborative effort may not be the right way to go. Maybe it is more cost effective and less politically energy sapping for each country to focus on its own efforts and find ways to censure nations that are simply not pulling their weight....we could be another ten years talking before coming up with a second global agreement....it might be too late by then.