Pelosi's "Historic" Trip to China

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi briefed President Obama about her delegations trips to China last week.
 
Her agenda in China focused officially on climate change but also included human rights in her meeting with the President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Chairman of the National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo.  Fortunately for her, she left Washington after the Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill emerged from the House Energy and Commerce Committee the night before she left and in time for Pelosi to show the Chinese that the US meant business.

 
Known for unfurling years ago a banner in Tiananmen Square in memory of  protestors, she felt this time that  she could better get the attention of the Chinese policy makers with this bill in her traveling bag than by waving a clean energy banner in Beijing. The bill seeks to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
 
Back home from China, Pelosi is intent on getting the climate change bill to the House floor. She met to push this legislation with Ways and Means Committee Charles Rangel and Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson. Conservative Democrats and most House Republicans are unlikely to favor this legislation which will bring in revenue from carbon permits.
 
"We don’t have a deadline, but we want to be ready for Copenhagen," said Pelosi. She was referring to the UN Climate Change Conference scheduled for December, 2009. This meeting is scheduled to ink a climate treaty which will replace the Kyoto Protocol which was not accepted by the US. The treat will deal with (1) How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, (2) How much China and India are willing to limit the growth of their emissions, (3) What help is needed for developing countries.
 
Pelosi was upbeat about cooperation between the US and China, the two largest contributors to greenhouse gases and optimistic that the US will be able to send a signal well before the December meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
 
One unanswered question is whether climate change will be on the agenda for the Economic and Strategic Dialogue scheduled to start July 27th in Washington. While Congress has not heretofore been involved with these dialogues, Pelosi’s trip to China puts her, even if unofficially, in the dialogue because of what is now being called as her "historic" trip. 
 
She was asked if she thought Congress should stop funding the United Nations Population Fund because it supports China’s family planning programs. "No, I don’t think we should stop funding the UN Population Fund. My knowledge of the fund is that it does not support abortions in China," she said.

Tags: Pelosi   climate change