"Could A Failed Keystone XL Amendment Upend the Paris Climate Talks?"

"Supporters of an international climate accord fear that a failed Senate amendment could come back to haunt the Obama administration as it tries to negotiate a global deal for Paris.

The measure, rejected as part of the Keystone XL pipeline debate last month, was primarily focused on invalidating an agreement between the United States and China to each curb carbon dioxide emissions. Buried at the end was a line barring the administration from entering any future deal imposing "disparate greenhouse gas commitments" for the United States and other countries.

It's a tricky word, disparate, and even the authors are evasive about how they want to interpret it. Taken at its most literal, though, it means Obama's negotiators could not sign off on a deal unless other major emitters -- or maybe even all countries -- cut carbon at the same absolute levels as America."

Lisa Friedman reports for ClimateWire February 17, 2015.