Just yesterday, we talked about how it seems that Congress won’t be passing a climate change bill prior to Copenhagen, and we noted how that could be an impediment for the climate change talks to take place there. Unfortunately, it seems like the United States’ reticence to get its act together on a bill will, in fact, greatly diminish the possibility of a binding, enforceable treaty on climate change this December.

Though many members of Congress have been very cautious on the progress of the climate change bill, I had been holding out a very slim and naive hope that perhaps our negotiators might go ahead and pull a fast one in Copenhagen and agree to a treaty that hadn’t been approved by Congress. Nope. From the Guardian:

Todd Stern, the state department climate change envoy, agreed. “It doesn’t look like it’s on the cards for December,” he said. “We should make progress towards a political agreement that hits each of the main elements.” …

Stern, in comments to the house foreign relations committee today, said his comments playing down prospects for a binding treaty at Copenhagen reflected the views of senior US politicians including Ed Markey, the author of a climate change bill passed in June. Stern insisted that negotiators were intent on producing a blueprint in Copenhagen that would lead to a binding legal agreement “perhaps next year or as soon as possible”.

So, yes. The guy that is negotiating for us at Copenhagen is now saying that, really, the conference should serve as the “blueprint” for a real agreement to come sometime down the line. Does this mean we’ll have another conference eventually? Because, really, when you have the 190+ countries together, that seems like the good time to hammer this out.

Senator John Kerry has admitted that there just won’t be a climate change bill passed before Copenhagen, and as such is hoping for an international agreement by the end of 2010. But even that, he conceded, depends on what ends up in the bill Congress passes. And then he tried to put a silver lining on it.

Kerry said the reduced role for Copenhagen could work out to the world’s advantage — allowing extra time for America, China, and the international community to co-ordinate their efforts. “The president can go China next week, sit with the Chinese and make clear what he is prepared to do, make clear what the Senate is prepared do. What the house has done has been made clear. so you are in a range, and the Chinese and everyone else enter into a political agreement which does not have the force of law till a year later,” he said.

Grrrr. Glad to see the United States unilaterally derailing this process. But on the bright side, we can talk to other countries! Or, just do that, in Copenhagen, when every country is already there.

Grrrr.