As the likelihood of passing strong (if any) energy and climate legislation this year grows dimmer and dimmer, Nature writer Jeff Tollefson looks at what the next president could -- and should -- be planning to do:
In the end, many experts expect that whatever the next president achieves domestically will set the standard for a post-Kyoto agreement. Many international delegates hope to achieve an agreement on the post-Kyoto framework by 2009, an aggressive goal that leaves the new president less than a year to get everything done. "It's more realistic to look at early-to-mid 2010," says [Dan] Esty [director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy in New Haven, Connecticut]. "Three or four months for the administration to get its feet on the ground, a year to get the negotiations done. It's a fast pace, but a doable one."
The next president will be charged with ushering through a comprehensive energy plan as well as solid plan to address climate change at home that will allow us to engage internationally on the subject. It's a major task -- one that will by necessity be at the top of the agenda, an agenda that will be crowded with Iraq, Iran, health care, immigration, and other issues that might seem more pressing.
--Kate Sheppard
