US considering greenhouse gas reduction target post-2020

The U.S. government has started to analyze what sort of emissions reductions it can commit to after 2020 in a new agreement to fight global warming, a State Department official said.

“The process has started — it’s been going on for a while in the U.S. government to think about and develop a post-2020 commitment,” Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy on climate, told reporters at United Nations climate talks in Warsaw today. “The degree to which that’s based on a projection out of policy that’s in place now and the degree to which you leave some room for new policy that might come into play, that’s part of the art of doing his exercise.”