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WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Hopes for a U.S. climate bill this year are waning and withering expectations are likely to adversely affect international negotiations, E.U. climate envoy Connie Hedegaard said Thursday after meeting the day before with senior administration officials.

If Congress can't approve legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions in the coming weeks, administration officials indicated it wouldn't likely pass at all this year, the European Union climate action commissioner said.
That would undermine international negotiations, Hedegaard said.
"What we hear coming out of the American discussion, coming out of Beijing, coming out of Delhi, maybe also Mexico, [is that] it would be difficult to get all the details set," for a final, binding accord later this year, she said.
The White House is attempting to revive the stalled climate bill in the Senate in the face of tough election-year politics, an ongoing recession and a controversial health-care vote. The administration had hoped to pass a climate bill into law before the next major international climate change summit in Mexico in December. Without it, countries are unlikely to ratify a binding accord to cut emissions.
Hedegaard met Wednesday with U.S. climate ambassador Todd Stern, White House energy and climate czar Carol Browner, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson and a raft of federal lawmakers. She will next fly to Mexico to lay the diplomatic groundwork for the December United Nations climate meeting.
The E.U. commissioner said that after conversations with Stern, Jackson and Browner, she felt great uncertainty about the climate bill's fate in the administration: "It's very, very nervous times. People are not knowing, will it fly or will it not fly," she said.
"The feeling that I got yesterday was that, well, not too many want to bet on the timing and what could be the outcome," she told reporters at the National Press Club.
Even though the EPA is crafting its own greenhouse gas regulations, Hedegaard said that without a cap on emissions, many countries would lose confidence in Washington's ability to deliver on promises the president made at the climate summit in December. President Barack Obama pledged to cut U.S. greenhouse gases 17% from 1990 levels by 2020.
"The rest of the world will judge very carefully whatever comes out of your process," she said.
Asked if the EPA's plans to cut emissions through the Clean Air Act would assure international negotiators, the E.U. commissioner said she didn't believe the agency could achieve the president's 17% target through regulation alone.
Litigation and court challenges would obstruct EPA efforts, creating regulatory uncertainty and immobilizing investment, Hedegaard said.
Even with doubts over EPA regulations and in the absence of Congressional action, the E.U. commissioner said negotiators would still work toward producing final agreements in Mexico on other major principles, including on finance and emissions reduction reporting requirements.
Hedegaard said the European Union was committed to securing a total of $30 billion in near-term financing for developing countries to help transfer low-emission technologies and to aid adaptation to potential climate change effects.
"It's crucial that money will be on the table [in Mexico], that developed countries will actually deliver this money, and developing countries will see there is actually momentum," the E.U. commissioner said.
"I got the impression this is a view shared by the administration," she said.