On Monday, January 26, 2009, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, appointed Todd Stern as the new administration's principal advisor on international climate policy and strategy and its chief climate negotiator.  Stern, whose official title is Special Envoy on Climate Change, was a senior White House official under President Bill Clinton.  Stern worked on the Kyoto Protocol talks in the Clinton administration, but announced what seems to be a tougher stance on climate change during a new conference announcing his appointment.

"The time for denial, delay, and dispute is over, " said Stern.  "Containing climate change will require nothing less than transforming the global economy from a high-carbon to a low-carbon energy base," Stern said.  "As the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, we can only expect to lead abroad if we are prepared to act decisively at home.  Yet we can only meet the climate change challenge with a response that is genuinely global.  Eighty percent of greenhouse gas emissions are produced outside the United States, and a rapidly growing percentage is produced in emerging market countries."

Yes, but what kind of specific policies and projects does Stern intend to undertake?  While he hasn't made any announcements yet, according to an article he co-wrote with Brookings Institute fellow, William Antholis, for The Washington Quarterly in 2007 outlined some basic guidelines for sorting out new climate accords.  Among them:

• Create a group of eight key developed and developing nations, an "E-8" that together accounts for 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. These countries include Brazil, China, the EU, Japan, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. Negotiations should happen at a head-of-state level rather than with technical-level bureaucrats. This differs from former President Bush's UN-sanctioned process that puts almost 180 countries together at the bargaining table.
• Partner with China as it has become overcome the U.S. as one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. In the article, Stern calls for a relationship of constructive cooperation on energy and environment between the U.S. and China, offering "environmental technology" and mobilizing investment while encouraging China to reform its regulatory and incentive structure.
• Specify binding emissions targets for developed countries and as many developing countries as possible. These should be relatively long-term targets that decline over time, so they provide a basis for planning by governments as well as businesses, and so that they can be better understood as part of a long-range plan to contain global warning.

Back when Stern was still backing candidate Hillary Clinton's run for president, Stern admitted that bringing China on board, and India as well, wouldn't be easy.  He said it remained unclear whether any developing countries such as China and India would make any significant commitments perceived as being imposed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Stern is a senior fellow at the think tank, Center for American Progress, where he focuses on climate change and environmental issues.  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a vice chair of public policy for the Washington law firm, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr.

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