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Chapter 8 - Options for the future: realities, visions, and pathways

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2014

Thomas L. Brewer
Thomas L. Brewer
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
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Summary

[W]e ask [the United States] for your leadership. But if for some reason you’re not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.

Kevin Conrad, Representative of Papua New Guinea (2007)

I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.

President Barack Obama (2013)

The first quote above marked a nadir of US diplomatic “leadership” on any issue in several decades. In fact, the delegate’s plea to the USA either to lead or step aside so others could lead at the FCCC Conference of the Parties was followed by applause and cheers by hundreds of delegates for his having made the point so publicly in an official venue and in the presence of the leaders of the US delegation. The event provides an apt transition from the previous chapter’s focus on international cooperation to this chapter’s focus on leadership, both internationally and domestically, and options for the future.

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Chapter
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The United States in a Warming World
The Political Economy of Government, Business, and Public Responses to Climate Change
 , pp. 263 - 299
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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