“GAME OVER” - The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America's Future - page 105

conference, the meeting was already in disarray. Progress was stalled.
It wasn't just that countries couldn't agree on what to do; they couldn't
even agree on whether they should be talking to each other at all.
Outside, UN and Danish security corralled thousands of angry at end-
ees trapped in the freezing cold by logistical planning that was no bet er
than the diplomatic preparations. Seven hours of this let me with no
voice. h at's why, as the Copenhagen climate summit came to a close,
I was holed up in my Danish Modern apartment with only email and
Tw i t er as my lifelines to the outside world.
It turned out that most people thought I wasn't missing much. h e
headlines that greeted the end of the conference were punishing. h e
Financial Times , hardly a world headquarters for hardcore environmen-
talists but recently an advocate for a binding global treaty, called it a
“dismal outcome” and a “i asco.” 45 h e assembled leaders failed to con-
clude a legally binding agreement. h ey did not even set a target to cut
their emissions. And the aspirational, nonbinding text that they i nally
cobbled together was rejected by the assembled countries as a whole.
Instead, its existence was simply “noted.”
To many people who worried about climate change, this was a sign
that any emissions cuts by the United States would be for naught.
Climate change is a global problem. h e United States currently
accounts for a lit le less than 20 percent of global carbon dioxide
emissions from energy use, and it is an even smaller fraction once
you add in things like deforestation and emissions of other gases. 46
h e i gure is expected to decline steadily over time: the International
Energy Agency projects that the U.S. part will fall to as lit le as 12
percent over the next twenty or so years. If Americans and Europeans
cut their emissions but the Chinese and Indians crank theirs up, the
U.S. ef ort will be almost pointless. h is seemed to be the lesson from
Copenhagen: climate change is hopeless, and it isn't worth your ef ort
to try.
But that's a mistaken reading of how international politics works.
h e apparent Copenhagen failure had signaled that a legally binding
treaty wasn't in the cards. But there are other ways to make progress on
climate change, and they all benei t from action by the United States.
Even the deal made at Copenhagen, many would convincingly argue,