US attempts to shift focus of climate negotiations

The last time the US decided to make a serious intervention, it drastically altered the course of climate change negotiations. Following a period of what can be termed as hibernation, the US has started asserting itself once again, at the ongoing Bangkok climate conference in the run up to the Doha Conference of Parties (CoP).

The US does not want to undertake binding commitments or be associated with anything under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which would involve making itself accountable for its carbon emissions. This is not new. Now, in keeping in line with its long, well-established position of inaction and manipulation, it has been pushing for all countries to address the issue of short-lived climate forcers, which it says “could be one of the major contributors to global warming in the future”. Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) are a group of gases that stay for a much shorter while in the atmosphere as compared to carbon dioxide, which stays in the atmosphere for decades.