Obama Vows Climate Action Despite Financial Crisis
US: November 19, 2008
CHICAGO - Barack Obama said on Tuesday the United States would "engage
vigorously" in climate change talks when he is president and pledged,
despite the financial crisis, to stick to plans to reduce emissions sharply
by 2020.
The Democratic president-elect, who regularly criticized the Bush
administration's attitude toward global warming, reiterated his plans to
start a "cap and trade" system that limits carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
from big industries.
"We will establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce
emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them by an additional 80
percent by 2050," he said in a video address to a global warming summit in
California attended by US governors and representatives from other nations.
"My presidency will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate
change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in
the process," he said.
Obama said he would not attend UN-sponsored climate talks in Poland in
December as President George W. Bush will still be in office then.
But he sent a message to international delegates who have spent years
battling Bush representatives over targets to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and halt global warming.
"Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again
engage vigorously in these negotiations and help lead the world toward a new
era of global cooperation on climate change," Obama said.
The president-elect said he asked members of the US Congress who would be
present in Poland to report back to him on what they learned.
PAINFUL ACTION
European nations have pushed the United States for years to show more
leadership on climate change so that China and India, developing nations
whose emissions are outpacing the developed world's, will follow suit.
Though Obama's remarks were a reiteration of his campaign promises, the
timing signaled his commitment to potentially painful environmental
objectives despite a teetering auto industry and a financial crisis that is
lashing jobs.
Obama promised during his White House campaign to create an emissions
trading system, similar to the European Union's, which sets limits on the
amount of CO2 factories can emit and lets companies trade permits that allow
them to pollute more.
That system is known as "cap and trade."
The president-elect said his plans to invest $15 billion every year into
solar power, wind power and other renewable fuels would reduce US dependence
on foreign oil and improve national security while helping the planet.
"It will also help us transform our industries and steer our country out of
this economic crisis," he said, citing a frequently mentioned estimate of 5
million jobs that could be created in "green" or environment-related
industries.
Environmentalists welcomed his approach and saw significance in the timing
of his words.
"As world leaders gather in the coming weeks in Poland to negotiate a
pathway out of the climate crisis, the eyes of the world will be upon
America and our newfound resolve to rejoin global efforts," Larry Schweiger,
president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement.
"With today's call for action on global warming, President-elect Obama has
kicked the gears of change into motion," he said.
(Editing by David Wiessler)
Story by Jeff Mason
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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