States or the union

摘要

Before the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008, US climate strategists focused much of their energy at state and local level. Their goal was threefold: to test new climate policies, to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions where possible and to increase pressure on businesses and policy-makers to craft a viable national compromise. The third strand of that strategy failed this year, making the successes attained in the other two all the more important.