“a successful failure”

11月12日付のFTの記事“How to make a successful failure out of Copenhagen”がわりと面白い。まぁ、環境屋の間では普通に語られているような話ばかりと言ってしまえばそれまでだが、これが新聞記事だということを考えると、やはり「さすが」だと言えるだろう。温暖化問題をめぐる日本国内での議論に比べれば、一周、二周、先を行っているのは確実。以下、抜粋（下線はblog筆者）。

I detect a hint of I-told-you-so smugness about some of the gloomy advance commentary on Copenhagen. It is almost as if climate change campaigners are relieved that the US has lived up to its let-the-planet-go-to-hell stereotype. The process has been derailed, a spokesman for Greenpeace said the other day, because, predictably enough, Washington had bowed to “Big Carbon”.

The world badly needs to fix a carbon price if governments and businesses are to take the measures needed to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. The political and the economic incentives to reduce CO2 emissions depend on establishing an agreed global framework. The longer negotiations drag on, the greater the risk of permanent prevarication. The fate of the Doha trade talks provides a salutary warning.

There have been some encouraging signs too of compromise in the emerging world. ... Behind these shifts lies the self-interest that flows from an appreciation of one of the central unfairnesses of climate change. If the west bears most of the responsibility for global warming, the effects will be felt more quickly and acutely in the emerging world. China and India need only to look at the impact on their water supplies of melting Himalayan ice caps to understand that simply blaming the US for the problem does them little good.

my room, Washington DC, Nov 16, 23:11