EU to Stand Alone in Fight Against Global Warming

The new president of the European Union revealed the bloc's intentions to continue the fight against global warming, even if other nations won't make the same kind of sacrifices. While the Copenhagen Climate Summit found no takers for Europe's aggressive proposals, the EU believes the G-20 may be a better forum to motivate global change. The G-20 generally focuses on economic issues, and includes 19 countries with the largest economies and the European Union. This collective represents about 90% of the world's GDP, which EU president Herman van Rompuy says encompasses all the major players needed to create meaningful change without the need for complete international consensus.

"There is an awareness that after Copenhagen things have changed. The balance of power has shifted," said van Rompuy of the failed negotiations and the international political climate. Emerging economies like Brazil, South Africa, and China, rallying poor nations behind their agenda, displayed unexpected political presence in Copenhagen and have been blamed for the negotiation's failure. While the Copenhagen summit did start a climate reparation fund for poor nations, it did not establish legally binding emissions requirements or clean energy regulation.

Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberal party in the European Parliament, speculated that the growing economic and political strength of China and other emerging economies could threaten the strong ties that Europe has shared with the United States since the end of the second World War. "Can we still come to major global agreements? If not in climate issues — where there is a broad consensus that doing nothing spells disaster for mankind — then where?"

The Associated Press quoted a director at the Center for Strategic and International Relations, Heather Conley, who says that Europe is off-message with America's priorities. Instead of talking about global warming, "Europeans should focus the conversation on the economic issues of climate change, the green jobs, the recovery," she said. "That will be a much better, more persuasive way to get Washington in line."

Conley's statements come after new polls show that not only has American belief in human caused climate change dwindled, but tolerance for a bill controlling greenhouse gas emissions has plummeted. A joint study carried out by the Associated Press and Stanford University shows that while 75% of those polled said that they support taking action to address global warming, the same percentage said no action should be taken if it were to raise their monthly energy bill by $25. 59% of respondents said they wouldn't even tolerate an increase of $10. 85% of respondents feel that economic policy always takes precedent over other issues. This has led political analysts to say that there is no real "fault" between Europe, the United States, and China for failure at the last climate summit; each nation is simply talking past one another.