Cool on warming

Climate: Economic hardship and falling oil prices are changing the greenscape | Mark Bergin

Think a Barack Obama presidency will significantly change the country's course on climate policy? Not so, says a growing cadre of economists, political analysts, and environmental experts. Charles McElwee, a law professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a leading liaison between the United States and China on emissions discussions, contends that the president-elect is not likely to convince Congress to ratify hard caps on greenhouse gases amid the nation's economic turmoil. Harlan L. Watson, the State Department's special envoy to the UN on climate change, goes one step further, arguing that no world leader, including the new American president, is going to bear the financial cost necessary to clamp down on carbon anytime soon: "The economy is going to be the focus of the new U.S. president and the world leaders for the foreseeable future. Quite frankly, the economy has buried everything."