Earth Equity News

Once a Climate Deal is Reached, Hurdles Loom. AP, December 11, 2009. "As difficult as it may be to hammer out a global climate deal in Copenhagen, implementing one could prove even harder. From New Delhi to Washington, domestic political opposition, corruption, grass-roots intransigence and sheer bureaucratic incompetence stand as significant roadblocks to any agreement on emissions curbs. Many across the globe are hoping Indonesia, with 10% of the worlds' forests, can be a leader in rain-forest preservation. 'But I think everybody has yet to realize how difficult this is going to be,' said Frances Seymour, director-general of the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research. Using fire to clear land is illegal in Indonesia, but prosecutions are rare, said Greenpeace spokesman Brian Martin. Almost 18 million acres (7.2 million hectares) of land was burned during the last dry season from January to mid-October, said Ali Akbar, an activist from the Indonesian Forum on Environment... In the U.S., getting the treaty ratified, even by a Democrat-controlled Senate, will be a battle. Republicans have charged that the emissions cuts President Barack Obama plans to offer at Copenhagen would cost jobs, making moderate Democrats nervous. Some have urged Obama to be cautious about what he agrees to, knowing full well that the last time a U.S. administration signed an international climate treaty in the late 1990s in Kyoto, the Senate balked at ratifying it. The concern then -- and now -- was exceptions in the deal for developing countries, among the fastest-growing emitters of greenhouse gases."