Reduce carbon emissions vs stop increasing emissions- now there is a deal 😴

I suppose this is progress and maybe it’s the best that could be done, but it hardly seems like much significant. The USA will cut emissions and China, in fifteen years, will stop increasing its emissions giving them fifteen more years to keep increasing them before they stop increasing … I don’t read “reduce emissions” anywhere in this deal, but what do I know?

This reminds me of the great debate over Social Security where the proposed lower future increases in the COLA was classified by Democrats as a cut in benefits. I guess if that’s your approach to mathematics, stopping an increase is a cut too.

Excerpt from the WSJ 11-12-14

As part of its plan, the U.S. said Wednesday it would double the average pace of its carbon-dioxide reductions after 2020, eyeing an overall reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions of between 26% and 28% by 2025, compared with 2005 levels.

The American target is built around the Obama administration’s existing regulations for vehicle-emissions standards and power plants. Leading oil and gas companies and power plans are expected to oppose any efforts to make deeper cuts than the ones they have faced already.

For its part, China agreed Wednesday to stop increasing carbon-dioxide emissions by about 2030 or earlier, with fossil fuels falling to about 80% of Chinese energy use, U.S. officials said.