Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (official photo)
No U.S. climate bill, no matter how tough, will really make a dent in global climate patterns on its own. Rather, the hope is that passage of a decent climate bill domestically will, like Europe’s earlier adoption of a cap-and-trade scheme, be part of an iterative international process moving toward an international accord and global action. And via Ryan Avent, some evidence from down under that it’s working. Per Reuters:
Australia’s emissions trading laws look more likely to pass a hostile Senate after U.S. Congressional support for a similar climate bill eroded political opposition in Australia to carbon trading.
One can only imagine that a bill that actually passes the Senate and gets signed by the President would do even more good. And of course this is a road that goes in multiple directions. Any positive action from the Chinese, even if mild, would make good climate measures more politically palatable in the U.S. and Europe. And the Chinese are, in turn, more likely to act when they see a more-or-less united West acting in good faith on this issue.
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