US climate bill, UN pact seen more likely in 2010

The U.S. energy bill may not pass until next year, which could also delay an agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol on cutting global greenhouse gas emissions until 2010, experts said on Thursday.

Without action from the United States, rich and poor countries will remain divided on the climate change issue. The focus in Copenhagen in December might shift from forming a final global agreement to working out a framework of ideas, such as how to bury carbon emissions and finance renewable energy infrastructure. Advocates are encouraged, though, that China and the United States are making enough progress that a global pact should eventually be hashed out.

“I don’t think not reaching an agreement (in 2009) will be particularly dire,” one carbon market broker said.

Guardian