State Department meeting aimed at climate change progress

The State Department on Sunday opens a two-day meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, a multilateral group that has gained political cachet as a vehicle for progress on climate following last year’s messy UN summit in Copenhagen.

The 17-member group includes China, the U.S., the European Union, Russia, India, Brazil and others. Its members together account for over three-fourths of global greenhouse gas emissions.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the meeting will be led by Todd Stern, who is State’s special climate envoy, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman.

“We are going to see if we can’t continue our dialogue among major developed and developing economies to make progress in meeting our objectives on climate change and the clean energy challenge,” Crowley said Friday.
 
“Clearly, there is still a gap between the views of the developing and developed world, and we’re going to see if we can, through the course of this discussion, narrow that down,” he added.

President Barack Obama launched the Major Economies Forum last year as a reboot of an initiative begun under former President George W. Bush.

Some climate experts believe that at least in the near-term, the group may represent a more practical venue for emissions talks than the sprawling, consensus-driven UN process. The Copenhagen climate summit in December fell far short of expectations, producing only a limited and voluntary accord.

Robert Stavins of Harvard University and Sarah Ladislaw of the Center for Strategic & International Studies have both written about prospects for progress through the Major Economies Forum. I blogged about their views here and here.