Obama team takes its climate change agenda abroad

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WASHINGTON, Mar 28 (AP): The Obama administration has a single mission as it heads to the climate change negotiating table for the first time Sunday: convincing other countries the United States cares about global warming.
After eight years on the sidelines, the US delegation's new leadership says it is ready to assume a central role in crafting a new agreement to slash greenhouse gases. But whether the world's second largest source of heat-trapping pollution will be ready to sign onto a new deal by the end of the year could depend on Congress.
To showcase America's commitment, the State Department dispatched US climate envoy Todd Stern to Bonn, Germany, to attend the first of a series of largely technical meetings, beginning Sunday. The talks are hoped to lay the groundwork for a new international climate agreement to be signed at a conference in December in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Stern, in a telephone interview Thursday with the news agency during a London stopover, said his participation in the talks is to punctuate the US's newfound determination to address the climate problem.
"I frankly thought it was important for me to come and make the first statement on behalf of the United States and say we're back, we're serious, we're here, we're committed and we're going to try to get this thing done," said Stern. "That is why I am here. That is the point I want to convey. We want to convey that we mean it."
Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is hosting the Bonn talks, said participants "will be very excited" to hear Stern outline the basic principles that will guide the US in the upcoming negotiating process.
They clearly are expecting a new tone after eight years during which the Bush administration repeatedly made clear its disdain for any climate discussions whose aim was a commitment to mandatory greenhouse gas reductions.