Copyrighted Image? DMCA | In a move certain to draw the ire of congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama is working to secure an international agreement on climate change that would compel countries to slash their carbon emissions. Obama is pursuing the "politically binding" accord to sidestep the U.S. Senate, where a "legally binding" agreement would almost certainly fail. Such an agreement needs a two-thirds majority of the Senate to pass under the U.S. Constitution. There is virtually no chance the Senate would pass a legally binding U.N. accord on climate change in the near future, at a time when divisions over the causes of the Earth's warming have become increasingly partisan. |