Here is my posting on National Journal’s blog in response to Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement Tuesday that Democrats will wait until to spring to debate climate legislation on the Senate floor.

By Larry Schweiger

Hope springs eternal, but the idea of waiting to "spring" for Senate action doesn't fill me with hope. In 2010, the Senate will convene in January, not March. The Senate's unfinished business on clean energy and climate should be on deck as the Senate's highest priority after health care. Speaker Pelosi and the House worked impressively already this year to pass a clean energy jobs bill that puts America on a leadership pathway for reducing pollution and tackling climate change. When health care is done, the Senate needs to turn to the energy reform and climate package that Majority Leader Reid has put in motion. As we head into 2010, President Obama should make clear that delivering the clean energy jobs & climate bill to his desk is his top priority for unfinished business.

In the meantime, President Obama will send a team to the climate negotiations in Copenhagen. He has been an impressive leader on climate change in his first year -- from tailpipe standards to a promising new dialogue with China. But Copenhagen and the coming months will be the pivotal test of whether he can break through the politics of inaction and the millions of dollars spent by oil companies and their allies to block progress. It is unlikely that the President will close the final deal on a new global agreement in December. More likely, he will prepare the way with an interim deal and ask the world to wait on Congress for the final package. If so, it will take a vigorous White House determination to move advance the bipartisan efforts being led by Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman to the front of the line.

Americans have had enough delay. We can't afford to wait and let clean energy jobs go to other countries ready to invest in clean energy. We can't wait to break our addiction to oil. We can't wait to take the responsible steps necessary to protect people and wildlife from a warming world.

The piece below is my latest editorial from National Wildlife Federation’s online magazine.

By: Larry J. Schweiger

Carbon dioxide pollution knows no political boundaries. Decarbonizing every economy around the world must be our common goal.

In a few weeks, National Wildlife Federation will send a team to the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen to support world leaders striving to create an enforceable global agreement to cut carbon dioxide pollution. We will be demanding that assembled leaders produce a roadmap--with every nation participating this time--to collectively curb this massive pollution threat before it’s too late to avoid catastrophic climate changes that will spell unprecedented losses of wildlife all over the world in every ecosystem. We will demand firm reductions and timetables that match the best available science and we will press for the establishment of specific, enforceable targets proportional to each country’s contributions. Here are some of the key elements to a global deal.

The 20 largest emitters known as the G-20 produce eighty percent of the carbon dioxide pollution. They include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. These nations must lead the way and be accountable to cut their emissions on an aggressive timetable. Discussions leading up to Copenhagen have been marked by wrangling about who should do what and which countries should make the biggest emissions cuts. The U.S. and China together, now represent more than 40 percent of annual emissions so we both must do our fair share to cut future emissions. Copenhagen will fail unless scientifically-sound 2020 emissions targets are established for each of these countries and to establish a firm date for industrialized nations to begin cutting overall emissions. The actual atmospheric declines should start by no later than 2015 to minimize the real risks of runaway global warming.

Many developing nations are rightfully looking for ways to build their own economies to provide for their people. It is critically important that we help them build clean energy economies, while avoiding fossil-fuels that increase global emissions. Instead, we need to help them adopt and deploy new, clean energy technologies to meet their needs. In other words, we want to help developing nations to go from the 19th century right into the 21th century bypassing our 20th century mistakes. Think of it this way, many of the world’s poorest people have never made a phone call, if and when they do, it will be on a cell phone. When they get their first lights, they will be solar or wind-powered. They will be able to stop burning wood and dung for cooking and replace these soot-producing stoves with solar cookers.

** Protecting Forests

Deforestation and continual degradation of forests represents about 20 percent of the total human-caused atmospheric carbon dioxide as trees remaining tropical rain forests, are vital stores of carbon. We must forge a global deal that helps developing countries protect remaining uncut forests by providing financial incentives to reduce future deforestation and degradation. Properly executed, this will help mitigate climate change, provide protection for extravagant biodiversity in rainforests and help the poor develop in sustainable ways. All of this must be sensitive to and address various social, institutional and political drivers that trigger destructive forest losses.

Because it will take time to transition large coal-fired power plants and industrial facilities, we must invest in carbon offsets that fund farmers who increase their carbon storage in soils and pay forest landowner for delaying timber harvests by 30-40 years to get additional carbon storage from older trees.

The December meeting will bring together world leaders and their environmental ministers to forge an agreement to succeed the Kyoto climate change treaty that expires in 2012. Many of us were hoping that the election of Barack Obama signaled to the world that the US would now play a strong leadership role in Copenhagen by tackling climate change with a new law that would set a firm foundation for U.S. action. President Barack Obama went to Copenhagen in October in a failed attempt to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, it is yet to be seen whether or not he will return as a world leader determined to forge a climate agreement that protects the future of all children.

The U.S. House of Representatives under the able leadership of Speaker Pelosi has passed a foundational bill that will enable President Obama to lead. As of this writing, the Senate has not matched the House action. It is unclear whether the U. S. Senate will pass a bill in time to help shape the President’s role in the treaty decisions ahead. I remain hopeful that Senator Kerry and Senator Boxer can reach out to the Republican Senators and those swing Democrats from high-carbon states to forge a deal.

We are running out of time to save the planet, and the Copenhagen summit is a terribly important milestone. You should urge President Obama to lead the charge for a global deal and urge your Senators to act now to pass climate legislation to create millions of clean energy jobs, make our world more secure and to give wildlife this last chance.

By Larry Schweiger

Check out this new report from the Center for Public Integrity The Global Climate Change Lobby. Fossil fuel industries are spending millions worldwide to spread fear and misinformation about climate legislation and an international climate treaty. Does Big Oil think they can buy off our future?

By Larry Schweiger

I’ll be speaking about my new book Last Chance this Friday November 6 in Charlottesville, Virginia at the Garden Club of Virginia Conservation Forum.

I’ll also be speaking on Saturday November 7 at National Wildlife Federation’s affiliate Texas Conservation Alliance in Dallas and November 8 at Bookpeople Bookstore and the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. I hope you can come out and join me in a conversation about how we can confront the climate crisis together.

By Larry Schweiger

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports most of the principles for a bipartisan climate change proposal articulated recently in an editorial by Sens. Kerry and Graham.

Since the Chamber has recently experienced some high profile departures over this issue, I welcome their clarification of support for the principles put forth by Sens. Kerry and Graham that will revitalize our economy with investments in clean energy, create new jobs, and enhance our national security.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

By Larry Schweiger

What will you learn if you read Al Gore’s new book Our Choice? That if we decide we want to be more energy independent and create millions of jobs, the answers are available to us. There’s a connection between our climate, national security and economic crises. Each is linked to our overdependence on carbon based fuels. We have the solutions in our hand, if we choose to implement renewables like solar and implement our capabilities to become more energy efficient. I keep a note on my desk that says “keep your destination in view.” For those who want to be part of the solution to a new energy future, Our Choice is an important guidepost on the path.