In Washington, D.C., a town not short on shopworn phrases, one oldie is increasingly relevant in the run-up to next month’s international climate change conference in Copenhagen:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
From working through inter-agency red tape to appeasing stubborn legislators and accepting scientific uncertainty, environmental diplomacy lessons are often hard learned, according to the former negotiators and policymakers who gathered Wednesday at Resources for the Future.
Image courtesy Ellen Davey
Former state department negotiator Richard Smith joined Alan D. Hecht of the Environmental Protection Agency and former Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Frank E. Loy to celebrate the release of his new book, Negotiating Environment and Science: An Insider’s View of International Agreements, from Driftnets to the Space Station, with a conversation about the trials of the negotiating past and hopes for the future.
Even with stories of peril from the negotiating battlefield, the event’s panelists struck an optimistic tone looking toward next month’s conference in Copenhagen.
For his part, Smith said he thinks the process is moving in the right direction, “The conference will be a step toward something better next year. Going further than we’re ready to go would be a mistake.”
He said he’s heartened by the Obama administration’s current negotiating track, saying without domestic movement and congressional buy-in any new international agreement could be doomed.
“You’ve got to go to a meeting knowing what it is you can agree to and make it stick,” he said. “The worst thing that could come out of Copenhagen would be Kyoto 2.”
Tiffany Clements is managing editor of Weathervane.