Will the US blink or balk at this week's UN Summit on Climate Change?
The final edition of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change will be released this week in Valencia, Spain and all eyes are on the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, the United States.
Optimism seems to abound. A Rueter's headline today announces that the "UN Panel's Global Warming Report May Win U.S. Support."
One of the chief US negotiators, John Marburger even went so far as to say "We haven't seen any problems in the drafts that we've seen.''
We're not holding our breath though, in the same interview the head of the US delegation to Valencia, Sharon Hayes, said that:
we have no major issues, it doesn't mean that wording can't and shouldn't be tweaked, so that's something we'll be taking a close look at. Our job as a delegation is making sure that the summary documents reflect accurately what's in the underlying documents, which is what the scientists are telling us.''
If by "tweaking" Hayes means the hack job the US delegation played a big role in orchestrating at previous IPCC releases, then we'll be sure to let you know here on the DeSmogBlog.
We have a copy of the pre-negotiation report and will be comparing it to the final publicly released document to be issued this Saturday, November 17. Stay tuned.
We'll also be updating you all week on the latest news out of Valencia.
