MUTUAL TRUST?:

Climate pact appears increasingly fragile; U.N. official quits (Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, 2/19/10, Washington Post)

Pessimism about global climate talks deepened Thursday as Yvo de Boer, the United Nations' top climate official, resigned after struggling for 3 1/2 years to produce a binding legal treaty requiring the world's major emitters of greenhouse gases to slash their carbon output in the coming decades. He will step down July 1 with that goal unmet.

"It was a difficult decision to make, but I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge," said de Boer, who will join the consulting group KPMG as an adviser on climate and sustainability and also work with several universities.

Many observers saw de Boer's resignation as recognition that the U.N. role had been overtaken by the big emitting nations, which hammered out the accord at the last minute in Copenhagen.

"It's a death knell for the U.N. process," said Frank Maisano, a lobbyist on energy issues at Bracewell & Giuliani. "It's clear now that you're going to have to solve this issue through agreements with major emitters."

"What Copenhagen did in my mind was put to bed the notion that there will be a global binding treaty that sets targets," said Kenneth Lieberthal, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a China expert who has been tracking climate talks. Instead, he said, countries would try to "develop mutual trust that will enhance their willingness to do more rather than less."

Comedic gold.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 19, 2010 7:11 AM