Ben Yagoda at Lingua Franca on COP21:
As the deadline approached, attention focused on one particular set of auxiliary verbs: shall (implying a commitment) and should (implying a general wish and desire). The United States delegation was especially partial to should. Legally binding language, such as shall, would have required that the treaty be submitted to the Senate, which would almost certainly scuttle it.
By the end of the conference, the United States had succeeded in plucking out all its targeted shalls, and everything looked copacetic. But as Todd Stern, the lead negotiator, said on NPR, there was a moment of panic at the very last minute. “So the draft comes,” Stern told Ari Shapiro. “We print it. We all sit down. And I’m flipping through it, and I go, ‘What happened here??’” What happened was that one line in the final text read, “Developed country Parties shall continue taking the lead by undertaking economy-wide absolute emission reduction targets” instead of the agreed-on “Developed country Parties should … ”
Stern informed Secretary of State John Kerry. “When I looked at that, I said, ‘We cannot do this and we will not do this,’” Kerry told reporters later. “‘And either it changes or President Obama and the United States will not be able to support this agreement.’” ...
I "should" soon stop blogging and turn my attention to more important matters.
I "shall" soon stop blogging and turn my attention to more important matters.
