Even before the final statements have been made at Copenhagen, the criticisms are underway. Many of them well deserved. But what should we make of Obama?
The temptation to blame Obama is great. We are running out of time and no one outside of the Exxon-Inhofe school of thought believes Copenhagen’s results are adequate. While some elements are hopeful – such as the $100 billion the US put on the table - the US’ anemic 17% of 2005 by 2020 and China’s ambiguous "carbon intensity" targets are nowhere near what is needed.
Hopes for Copenhagen were unbelievably high and it’s important to recognize the incredibly difficult hand Obama has to play:
- an extremely obstructionist political bloc and uncertain members of his own party (think Sherrod Brown, Carl Levin, Mary Landrieu, Claire McCaskill, Jim Webb, among others);
- the need to deliver less than a year into his term following the worst administration ever on the environment (despite which Obama has made a remarkable turnaround in the federal agencies);
- and dramatic erosion of public support only partly driven by the great recession (the biggest reason political opponents are as strong as they are).
The climate movement needs to target the real problems. We need to emphasize and continue to call out the obstructionist opposition married to the dirty corrupt fuel industry of the past while highlighting the necessary continuing hope that we can build on to get the right solutions in place.
And we need to do a much better job of building public support which has been steadily eroding. Reaching beyond the base, engaging mainstream Americans on the benefits of solutions in a way that is tangible and relevant to people’s every day lives remains an urgent need. We need to tap not only the best messaging but also be more innovative in our strategies; organizing the base, while important, is not enough.
And we need to confront that this is going to be hard every step of the way. Strong national legislation and international agreements are necessary. We absolutely need to get there. But they are insufficient. The solutions need to be at every level and that will mean a deep cultural – some would say spiritual – change. It’s going to be a slog for some time – hard work for everyone to get this done.
Let’s push our leaders but hold the right folks accountable and dig deeper to move mainstream Americans. Much as we’d like to hope otherwise, one person, even the president, will not do it alone.