By Philip K. Verleger

The current discussion on the fate of President Obama’s legislative program to address global warming brings back memories (bad ones) of a similar presidential attempt more than 30 years ago.

Those of us who were part of the earlier episode know only too well how Obama’s effort is likely to fare.

In January 1977, Jimmy Carter became president. Energy policy had been a key part, if not the centre, of his campaign. Carter claimed the United States lacked an effective approach to energy and vowed to fix the deficiency.

Like President Obama, President Carter enjoyed strong Democratic majorities in Congress. Like Obama, the Carter administration included many very bright, often arrogant young men and women who were certain they had the solution. Continue reading "Energy lessons for Obama’s administration from the Carter years"

Posting will be very light today; but we expect to be back to normal volume tomorrow.

An update from Energy Source:

We are still on a reduced publishing schedule and our regular features may not appear on some days. Please bear with us; we should return to our usual publishing programme next week.

A change to our planned schedule…

Energy Source will have fewer posts than usual until Monday January 11 when we will resume full blogging.

FT Energy Source is posting a daily question for our panel of expert commentators. Mindy Lubber of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, Jeremy Leggett of Solarcentury, Julian Morris of the International Policy Network, Kyoto protocol carbon market architect Graciela Chichilnisky, and Climate Change Capital chairman Vivienne Cox.

The UN conference in Copenhagen finally ended on Saturday morning with a global deal on climate change, although it was a non-binding agreement and far from unanimous. Is the agreement a disappointment or a relief?

Mindy Lubber: The climate treaty announcement is legitimately catching some heat for being too little, too late. The enormity of the crisis cries out for strong binding pollution reduction targets by all countries and massive infusions of public and private capital to catalyse a fast-track transition to a low-carbon economy.

But expecting we’d get all this at COP15 was never realistic. That’s why leading US businesses such as Nike, PG&E and North Face are encouraged by these first positive steps from Copenhagen.

Continue reading "Climate experts’ forum - the Copenhagen agreement: a disappointment or a relief?"

An agreement reached by US President Barack Obama with leaders from India, South Africa, China and Brazil has formed the basis of a text adopted by the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen.

At a glance here are the main points from the “Copenhagen Accord”:

* Long-term goals:

“Deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science … with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius.” Continue reading "Key points in the ‘Copenhagen accord’"

FT Energy Source is posting a daily question for our panel of expert commentators. Below are replies from Kyoto carbon markets architect Graciela Chichilnisky, Jeremy Leggett of Solarcentury, Julian Morris of the International Policy Network and Robert Stavins of Harvard University.

Who is responsible for today’s summit in Copenhagen being as chaotic and uncertain as it is?

Graciela Chichilnisky: The chaos in Copenhagen had three contributing causes that amplified what is always a difficult process - the process of reaching an agreement among almost 200 nations on a crucial issue.

The first cause is that the US was out of the process for the eight years of the Bush administration. The US is the main emittor (together with China) and did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This meeting was partly about bringing the US into the fold - a challenging task at best.

Continue reading "Climate experts’ forum: who is responsible for the chaos?"

Many draft agreements have been circulating around the Copenhagen climate change conference. This is a leaked copy of the latest, most credible, version: