Washington, Oct 3 (DPA) US President Barack Obama’s top aide on climate change acknowledged that legislation requiring major reductions in global-warming emissions is unlikely to pass Congress before December’s Copenhagen summit on climate change.
Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, said Friday in Washington that completion of the legislative process before Obama attends the Copenhagen meeting “is not going to happen”, The New York Times reported early Saturday on its website.
“I think we would all agree the likelihood you would have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we would go in early December is not likely,” she was quoted as saying.
Different versions of legislation proposed this week in the Senate and approved earlier this year by the House of Representatives would cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 17 to 20 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels, while reducing emissions by more than 80 percent by 2050.
“We will go to Copenhagen and manage with whatever we have,” Browner said.
