Will the US blink or balk at this week's UN Summit on Climate Change?

onNov 13, 2007 @ 11:54 PST

The final edition of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change will be released this week in Valencia, Spain and all eyes are on the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, the United States.

Optimism seems to abound. A Rueter’s headline today announces that the “UN Panel’s Global Warming Report May Win U.S. Support.”

One of the chief US negotiators, John Marburger even went so far as to say “We haven’t seen any problems in the drafts that we’ve seen.”

We’re not holding our breath though, in the same interview the head of the US delegation to Valencia, Sharon Hayes, said that:

we have no major issues, it doesn’t mean that wording can’t and shouldn’t be tweaked, so that’s something we’ll be taking a close look at. Our job as a delegation is making sure that the summary documents reflect accurately what’s in the underlying documents, which is what the scientists are telling us.”

If by “tweaking” Hayes means the hack job the US delegation played a big role in orchestrating at previous IPCC releases, then we’ll be sure to let you know here on the DeSmogBlog.

We have a copy of the pre-negotiation report and will be comparing it to the final publicly released document to be issued this Saturday, November 17. Stay tuned.

We’ll also be updating you all week on the latest news out of Valencia.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.