US climate deal gets cool response from allies
Washington’s image as a time-waster on global warming
is still hard to shake.
BY KARL
MATHIESEN
July 28,
2022 8:11 pm
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-climate-deal-muted-reaction-manchin-biden/
U.S.
President Joe Biden says his $370 billion climate package is “historic,” but
he'll have to do more at home and abroad for the world to see the U.S. as
anything but a colossal procrastinator.
If
Wednesday's agreement between U.S. Democrats passes Congress, backers said the
raft of tax credits for clean energy would cut emissions 40 percent below 2005
levels by the end of the decade. That's still short of Washington's pledge
under the Paris Agreement to cut emissions by as much as 52 percent by 2030,
but the target could also be met through other measures.
It would be
the largest investment in fighting global warming the U.S. has ever made. Former
U.S. Vice President Al Gore said that it would show “leadership for the world
by example.”
Rather than
elation, among the U.S.'s friends abroad there's simply relief that 18 months
of exhausting stop-start negotiations with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin
are over. There's also perhaps an unwillingness to let Biden off the hook for
not delivering on the lofty rhetoric on climate leadership he brought into
office, promising to redouble U.S. efforts in light of former President Donald
Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement.
“It is hard
to forget that during the last [U.N. climate conference] in Glasgow, it was
Manchin’s vote and position that inhibited the U.S. from having a greater
diplomatic impact,” said Costa Rica’s former President Carlos Alvarado Quesada.
“On
Manchin, I can only say that this was a necessary step forward in order to be
able to deliver climate action,” said Spain’s Minister for the Ecological
Transition Teresa Ribera.
An EU
official gave grudging approval: “It’s obviously good news that U.S. climate
policy will be able to move forward. Though the difficulties to get this passed
in Congress don’t bode well for any kind of further legislative moves.”
There’s
also caution that despite Manchin’s approval, the bill isn’t guaranteed to
pass. Multiple U.N. and national climate envoys, who readily backslap one
another over the smallest improvements in climate policy, said they were
unwilling to be drawn on the U.S. news until the ink on the president’s
signature was dry.
Still, the
sight of the West Virginia senator changing gears and supporting climate
policies he had recently rejected sends a positive signal, said Monica Araya, a
Norway-based clean transportation expert and distinguished fellow at the
ClimateWorks Foundation.
“His
yielding weakens the Manchins that we have in every country,” she said. “It
helps weaken the chain of excuses that build on ‘the U.S. is not moving.’”
Alvarado
Quesada said: “The deal does bring about some hope. This is relevant because
when it comes to the multilateral arena, what counts the most is leading by
example and walking the talk — getting things done.”
Climate
politics analysts said the deal offered the administration a chance to reset
its overseas agenda, but warned there are still gaps to fill.
“On Manchin, I can only say that this was a necessary
step forward in order to be able to deliver climate action,” said Spain’s
Minister for the Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera |
“If this
deal comes through, it will be a massive game changer,” said Alex Scott,
climate diplomacy and geopolitics program leader at the E3G think tank. “This
shift salvages the U.S. relevance on international climate action,” But she
warned: “It’s not enough alone — there are huge outstanding bills on climate
finance obligations.”
That was
highlighted Friday, when the OECD released data confirming that rich countries
had broken a promise to deliver $100 billion per year to help poor countries
cope with climate change.
The U.S.
has routinely faced pressure from its donor partners and developing countries
for failing to contribute its fair share or repay the $2 billion it pledged in
2015 and on which the Trump Administration reneged.
"Those
of us in climate vulnerable countries are still waiting,” said Mohamed Adow,
director of the Power Shift Africa think tank. “Until they honor their
commitments on the international stage they cannot be seen as a true global leader
on climate."
The deal
also made some concessions to Manchin — who has made millions in the coal
industry — by guaranteeing new coal, oil and gas extraction.
The U.S. is
“still playing catch up after years of being the world's worst polluter and it
continues to fund new fossil fuel exploration when we can't afford to burn all
the fossil fuel reserves we currently have," said Adow.
Green money
But while
the political reception may have been cool, some provisions in the deal are
already being eyed up by European business.
A $7,500
tax credit for U.S.-made electric vehicles is an opportunity for European parts
manufacturers, said Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based auto analyst.
“They
already have a few years head start on their U.S. peers due to the European
market thanks to EU regulations forcing more EVs into the market that the U.S.
saw under the Trump administration," said Schmidt.
European
renewable energy companies are eyeing tax credits being offered to generate
green hydrogen.
“This would
be a historic investment in clean energy and perhaps most importantly from a
developer perspective, it would bring improved certainty to development
planning, shifting away from a boom and bust cycle and bring more stability to
these long term infrastructure projects,” said an official from a European
clean energy company.
A charge to
be levied on methane emissions would put the U.S. at the forefront of a global
effort to cut the powerful greenhouse gas.
That
“stands in stark contrast to the process unfolding in the European Council
where the Commission's legislative proposal risks being weakened thanks to a
concerted effort by industry to water down the key provisions of the
legislation,” said Jonathan Banks, the global director for super pollutants at
the Clean Air Task Force.
Joshua
Posaner contributed reporting.
This
article has been updated.
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