Environmental Leader

Add Canada to a growing list of countries that want to wait until a global climate deal is struck and the United States decides how it will regulate emissions before they regulate their own greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier this week, New Zealand made a similar announcement. There also appears to be some widespread discussion over whether the U.S. will bring more countries to the climate-deal table.

Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice says it will be difficult to regulate domestic emissions until other countries, particularly the U.S., decide how they will deal with climate change, reports Google News (via The Canadian Press).

Regulations in Canada were originally scheduled to come into force by January 2010, but draft regulations haven’t even been published, reports The Canadian Press.

Leaders at the recent Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore agreed there will be no final deal in Copenhagen, and talks will continue next year, reports The Canadian Press.

Like a few other countries including France, Canada places part of the blame on the U.S.

Prentice said in the article that the situation is complicated by the uncertainty over whether or not the U.S. Senate will pass a cap-and-trade system and set national greenhouse gas limits.

However, two key Senators said the Senate’s failure to approve climate legislation should not be blamed for a failure to reach a global agreement at UN talks in Copenhagen, reports the New York Times.

Democrat Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee told the New York Times because of global negotiations every country is preparing its own set of domestic policies that will be subject to international verification.

Nigel Purvis, a former State Department climate negotiator who now runs the consulting group Climate Advisers, said in the article that the international community would like a clear answer from the U.S.

Karen Harbert, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, suggests international climate negotiations should stop focusing on whether the United States passes a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, reports the New York Times. She said in the article it’s risky to believe that if the U.S. goes first China, India and other large-emitting countries will follow with binding commitments.

Both China and India have consistently stated that they will not set carbon targets.

Meanwhile, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev has increased the country’s GHG emissions reduction target from 15 percent to 20 to 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, reports Google News (via AFP).

Russia plans to meet the new goal by improving the energy efficiency at Russian factories by 40 percent, according to the article.

Russia’s decision is said to put additional pressure on heavily-polluting countries such as the U.S. and China, reports AFP.