Copenhagen fears mount as US signals further delay to climate bill

Hopes that world leaders would deliver significant progress towards an international deal on climate change at next week's unprecedented meeting in New York received a major blow yesterday when a senior Democrat warned that a Senate vote on the proposed US climate bill might be delayed until next year.

Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, told reporters that the current row over proposed healthcare reform meant that the anticipated vote on the so-called Waxman-Markey bill could be put back until after the UN's crucial climate change conference in Copenhagen this December.

"We are going to have a busy, busy time the rest of this year," Reid said. " And, of course, nothing terminates at the end of this year. We still have next year to complete things if we have to."

However, any delay is likely to anger other countries involved in the Copenhagen talks, who have argued that a US climate change bill is essential if rich nations are to convince emerging economies such as China and India to sign up to an international agreement.

It will also further stoke tensions between the EU and US, who are reportedly at loggerheads over how the new treaty should be structured.

The prospect of a further delay to the bill looks set to dominate next week's series of high-level climate change talks, which includes the G20 summit in Pittsburgh and a special meeting of over 100 world leaders convened by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, specifically to address the faltering progress of the Copenhagen talks.

Speaking yesterday to The Guardian newspaper, Ban said that the meeting represented a last chance to revitalise the deadlocked Copenhagen talks. "We are deeply concerned that the negotiation is not making much headway," he said. "It is absolutely and crucially important for the leaders to demonstrate their political will, leadership, and to give clear political guidelines to the negotiators."

However, the prospect of the US attending the Copenhagen talks with no firm commitment to curbing carbon emissions is raising fears that other nations will be given an excuse to reject the proposed treaty. African nations are reportedly considering walking out on the process in protest at the slow pace of talks, and observers are convinced that China, India and Russia will not approve a deal that does not require the US to deliver deep cuts in emissions.

The news of further delays to the US climate bill came as the Obama administration yesterday attempted to underline its commitment to the environment by formally rolling out plans for new vehicle fuel efficiency standards.

The plans, which were first announced earlier this summer, would require new cars and trucks to deliver an average fuel efficiency of 35.5mpg by 2016 – a move that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil and be equivalent to taking 42 million cars off the road.

Speaking on a visit to a General Motors plant in Ohio, President Obama said the rules, which are expected to be passed early next year, would give auto companies "some long overdue clarity, stability and predictability".

The standards formed the centrepiece of a clutch of new environmental regulations from the administration, which also announced yesterday that the EPA is to crack down on coal plans that pollute water supplies and that the State Department will support a regional initiative to ban production of the greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbon or HFC.