Sierra Club: “A historic–if incomplete–agreement to begin tackling global warming.”

President Obama Friday announced that he had agreed to a “first step” global warming deal with China, India, Brazil and South Africa at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen–an accord long on promise and short on accomplishment….

Mr. Obama called the agreement “meaningful and unprecedented,” because it included promises by China and other major developing nations to slow the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions. “What we’ve achieved in Copenhagen will not be the end, but the beginning, the beginning of a new era of international action,” he said.

That’s the first take of the conservative daily Washington Times in their useful daily Washington Insight/Energy (sub. req’d).

In his DotEarth post, “A ‘First Step’ Climate Deal,” Revkin writes, “Here is a link to the ‘Copenhagen Accord‘ as it stands in the middle of the night here.”  The Washington Post has a long story just up, “World leaders reach deal on climate change in Copenhagen.”

Here’s the other side of the spectrum from WashTimes — Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director:

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This is a guest post by CAP’s Daniel J. Weiss.

Today’s new Washington Post-ABC News Poll demonstrates yet again that the American people want action to “regulate the release of greenhouse gases from sources like power plants, cars and factories in an effort to reduce global warming.”  Respondents supported this statement by more than two to one (65 percent favor, 29 percent oppose).  This poll was conducted December 10-13, at the height of the trumped up brouhaha over stolen emails from a British climate research institution.  These findings are consistent with the Associated Press-Stanford University poll released on Tuesday.

The WP-ABC poll found that three of five Americans would support reductions in greenhouse gas pollution even it “raised your monthly expenses by 10 dollars a month.”  And 55 percent would still support reductions if it “raised your monthly energy expenses by 25 dollars a month.”

These are amazing results during the worst recession in 70 years:

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“E-mail furor doesn’t alter evidence for climate change”

I cannot condone some things that colleagues of mine wrote or requested in the e-mails recently stolen from a climate research unit at a British university. But the messages do not undermine the scientific case that human-caused climate change is real.

After their widely criticized lapse in judgment in publishing an op-ed on climate science (!) by Sarah Palin (see “Washington Post goes tabloid, publishes second falsehood-filled op-ed by Palin in five months“), the Post has now published two pieces by actual scientists in response.  The first, published online, was by Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of the journal Science (see “Don’t let the climate doubters fool you“).

And now, finally, they have published a piece in their print edition, by climatologist Michael Mann — of the much attacked and much vindicated hockey stick graph (see (see NAS Report and RealClimate.org).

Mann is a genuine climate scientist, Palin, not so much. Sadly, seeing climate change up close provided the ex-Governor no more insight into anthropogenic global warming than seeing Russia from her home state provided her insight into U.S. foreign policy.  And that was one of the many points Mann made about man-made global warming [sorry,  couldn't resist that one].

Since Palin’s piece was very widely read, I’m  going to repost the rest of Mann’s in its entirety:

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This guest post is by Julian L. Wong, Senior Policy Analyst at CAP.

Has a U.S-China agreement on transparency been reached?  Possibly.

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The Wonk Room is blogging and tweeting live from Copenhagen.

President Barack Obama has addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. “While the reality of climate change is not in doubt,” he cautioned, “our ability to take collective action hangs in the balance.” Obame is now in difficult consultations with other heads of state in an attempt to forge a deal. Below is the transcript of his remarks.

Good morning. It’s an honor to for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. You would not be here unless you – like me – were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. That much we know.

So the question before us is no longer the nature of the challenge – the question is our capacity to meet it. For while the reality of climate change is not in doubt, our ability to take collective action hangs in the balance.

I believe that we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of this common threat. And that is why I have come here today.

As the world’s largest economy and the world’s second largest emitter, America bears our share of responsibility in addressing climate change, and we intend to meet that responsibility. That is why we have renewed our leadership within international climate negotiations, and worked with other nations to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. And that is why we have taken bold action at home – by making historic investments in renewable energy; by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings; and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.

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Agree to a historic agreement or delay and remain committed to “same stale arguments, month after month, year after year, while the danger of climate change becomes irreversible.”

Our guest blogger is Andrew Light, Senior Fellow at CAP and on the ground in Copenhagen. President Obama’s remarks to the global climate conference are at the end.

As we waited for the sessions to open this morning President Obama met with an array of leaders from developed and developing countries.  This followed late night negotiations reported as having produced an interim deal.  After several hours though, just prior to the start of the session, President Sarkozy of France was reported as having stormed out and expressed frustration that developing countries were not willing to cooperate.

Opening statements this morning by China and Brazil have been hard to parse, primarily amounting to lists of national programs.  But now that Obama has spoken it is clear that we now have two options:

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The UNFCCC has to put up or shut up on stopping carbon pollution

This video is by Peter Sinclair, the guy who proved Anthony Watts knows as much about copyright laws as about climate science. Part 1 is here.