Climate Targets To Be Announced In 2015 To Avoid U.S. Midterms

26 Nov, 2013 by William Teach

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Much like some of the big effects of Obamacare, Team Obama does not want the climate targets to come out and hurt Democrat election efforts. This was unintentionally exposed by Guardian reporter Fiona Harvey (via Tom Nelson)

Weary delegates trudging home from an exhausting and sleep-deprived fortnight of climate change talks in Warsaw may be unwilling to acknowledge it, but the hard work is just beginning. Like schoolchildren after a packed day of lessons, they have been sent back to their national capitals to “do their homework”.

By the first quarter of 2015, countries must come forward with their “contributions” to global reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, that will come into force from 2020. (snip)

Publishing targets in the first quarter of 2015 do not leave long for the assessment process to take place. However, that timetable has been drawn up chiefly to take account of the realities of the US electoral timetable. The US government announced earlier this year that it would set its post-2020 targets in the first quarter of 2015. That is necessary to ensure that the decision does not get tangled up in the US congressional elections in autumn 2014 — they are likely to be touchy enough, without introducing the incendiary subject of climate change.

Funny how Democrats always seem to want to avoid the hard decisions for their belief sets when election time comes around. It’s almost like they know that their beliefs are unpopular.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.