Press Office

Publication Date: December 09, 2009

(December 9, 2009)— Jennifer Smokelin and Lawrence Demase, two environmental attorneys from Reed Smith LLP, are among the official delegates attending the global UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-21. Smokelin and Demase are attending as delegates of the Environmental Markets Association (EMA), the leading US-based environmental trade association that focuses on market-based solutions as a means of addressing environmental problems, which selected them to be among the more than 3,000 delegates that will be at this year’s summit.

The conference includes the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 5th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. (CMP5)

“The US has worked vigorously behind the scenes for a reworking of the Kyoto framework before the Protocol expires in 2012, and uncertainties about this are rippling throughout the global business community,” said Smokelin, who is attending COP plenary sessions (including the expected address by President Obama), briefings by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and subcommittee meetings with the international delegation, as the “eyes and ears of her constituency,” among EMA member companies and the firm’s clients.

On behalf of the firm’s clients in the global wind power arena, Smokelin is focusing her attention on alternative and renewable energy sources. For industry, she will attend sessions of the Subsidiary Body of Implementation (SBA 31) and CMP to address the progress and future of the Clean Development Mechanism, other issues related to carbon finance, and procedures and mechanisms related to compliance. She will also focus on areas in which she has extensively published and lectured, including carbon capture and sequestration by attending sessions for the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 31).

President Obama will be at the conference tomorrow to announce new US greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. He will be the first president to attend a climate change conference since the 1992 Rio Convention, when UNFCCC was adopted.

“President Obama's decision to change his plans and come to Copenhagen on the last day of the conference indicates that he is expecting the international parties to reach an agreement on operational principles of a treaty,” says Demase. “The greenhouse gas reduction targets that Obama recently unveiled, and China's announcement that it is willing to slow the growth of GHG emissions in that country, have raised expectations for this conference. While there will likely not be a treaty coming out of Copenhagen, Obama will be credited as a leader in this arena, because of the dramatic change in direction of the Conference. The announcement by the EPA on the opening day of the Conference, that the agency has concluded that GHG's endanger the public health and the environment of the American people, will also serve to enhance his leadership role and will make it clear to Congress that, if they do not act soon on Climate Change legislation, there will be regulation under the Clean Air Act, which many may find to be more onerous than an comprehensive economy-wide legislative approach to climate change.”

Demase, who will be at the conference from Dec. 13-21, will participate in the preparation of the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action. He will also attend informal sessions of the delegates at the U.S. Center, speeches by Energy Secretary Chu, Council of Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley and Assistant to the President Carol Browner, as well as the announcement of the agreed outcome of the Conference by the heads of state.

Smokelin and Demase are posting their daily viewpoints from the conference on Reed Smith’s Environmental Law Resource blog.

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is a global relationship law firm with nearly 1,600 lawyers in 23 offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Founded in 1877, the firm represents leading international businesses, from Fortune 100 corporations to mid-market and emerging enterprises. Its lawyers provide litigation and other dispute resolution services in multi-jurisdictional and other high-stakes matters; deliver regulatory counsel; and execute the full range of strategic domestic and cross-border transactions. Reed Smith is a preeminent advisor to industries including financial services, life sciences, health care, advertising, technology and media, shipping, energy trade and commodities, real estate, manufacturing, and education. For more information, visit reedsmith.com

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