Diplomat Pelosi: A Denier’s Best Friend

China and the United States account for almost half of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is why Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) this week told the Sydney Morning Herald that ongoing negotiations between the two nations will “define” the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen (where the 15^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet in December to negotiate a successor global warming treaty to the failed Kyoto Protocol). According to U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) the climate talks will be “one of the most complex diplomatic negotiations in the history of the world,” as reported by the New York Times.

If the Congressmen are correct, and climate negotiations with China are delicate diplomacy, then why did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California)-long an irritant to the Chinese government for her vocal criticism of the Communist regime’s human rights record-lead a delegation to China to try to find common ground on global warming? Pelosi told 200 students that climate change is “a place where human rights-looking out for the needs of the poor in terms of climate change and healthy environment-are a human right.” I’m not sure what this statement means, but I bet Chinese diplomats cringed.

Thankfully, U.S. Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) was there to remind reporters that negotiations with China are pointless, because the Chinese leadership already has decided growing prosperity and poverty reduction will not be hindered by expensive-energy climate treaties.