U.S. climate change envoy Todd Stern speaks during a press conference at the Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, on Monday, Dec. 8, 2014.LIMA, Peru – Washington is on track to meet its targets for reducing emissions in heat-trapping greenhouse gases despite an uptick last year, U.S. officials insisted at climate talks Monday.
Quizzed by rich and poor countries about its efforts against global warming, President Barack Obama’s envoys sought to explain how exactly the U.S. plans to cut emissions 17 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels.
Emissions were down about 10 percent but rose slightly last year and in early 2014 due to an “extraordinarily cold winter” that required high energy consumption, deputy U.S. climate adviser Rick Duke said in response to a question from China. He said emissions are projected to be down next year.
South Africa challenged whether the U.S. target for 2020 is ambitious enough, asking how much of the emissions drop since 2005 has been due to recession.
Duke said about two-thirds was policy-driven, with the rest attributable to factors including the recession and a switch from high-polluting coal to natural gas in power generation.