Summit takes aim at climate change

SACRAMENTO — Will the world's economic meltdown stall initiatives to curb global warming?

World leaders in the campaign to address climate change will confront that question as they gather in Beverly Hills tomorrow and Wednesday to shape policies aimed at responding to the mounting threats to food production, public health and the environment.

“The goal is very simple: to form a broad international alliance,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said when he called for the summit, the first of its kind in the United States.

The lineup includes high-ranking government officials from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States. Among the attendees will be governors, directors of environmental programs, business executives and environmentalists. The United Nations is sending one of its top climate change officials.

“This summit brings together leaders who are in the true hot spots around the world,” said Carter Roberts, president of the World Wildlife Fund.

Participants hope to emerge from the talks with voluntary commitments to slow deforestation, pursue clean-energy plants and stimulate investment in green technology.

“Our primary goal is to come out with strong working partnerships,” said Pete Grannis, New York state's commissioner of environmental conservation.

The agenda includes a potential agreement with Brazil and Indonesia to protect forests from being cleared to make way for cattle pastures or crops. As a result of that practice, the world is losing trees that capture carbon and provide homes for some of the rarest wildlife.

Participants also plan to lay the groundwork for more state-to-state and state-to-nation agreements, including adopting ways to cut emissions in more business-friendly ways.

Moreover, the conversations are expected to frame the direction of a new international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, that are linked to global warming. Representatives of 170 nations will convene next year in Copenhagen, Denmark, to draft a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which was not ratified by the United States.

“Through this collaboration, we are sending a powerful message to the rest of the world while striving to influence the position our national governments take in the next global agreement on climate change,” Schwarzenegger said.

Adding to the optimism is President-elect Barack Obama's intention to play an aggressive role in crafting a new international strategy and implementing domestic programs to reduce emissions.

That would be a reversal from President Bush, whose administration had been slow to regulate greenhouse gas emissions blamed for contributing to global climate change that threatens to disrupt harvests, shrink water supplies and speed the demise of rare wildlife.

“The climate change deniers are no longer listened to,” said John Gerretsen, minister of the environment for the Canadian province of Ontario.

The summit's lofty idealism may have to be more grounded in economic reality, however. Among the targets in efforts to curb greenhouse gases are principal economic drivers – power plants, industry, vehicles and agriculture – at a time of worldwide financial crisis.

Even though Schwarzenegger faces a record budget deficit, he opposes holding off on measures to combat global warming.

“The truth is that there is far more economic opportunity in fighting global warming than there is economic risk,” said the Republican governor, who supports a series of initiatives to reduce emissions and signing agreements with other states, provinces and countries.

Some participants say investments in green technology will invigorate the economy.

“It is no longer the environment versus the economy. It's all about the greening of the economy,” Gerretsen said.

Lately, however, there have been suggestions that the United States and the European Union should concentrate on more immediate dangers posed by the global financial meltdown rather than impose potentially costly regulations on industry.

Despite Obama's position, the economy may keep the Democratic-controlled Congress from acting swiftly. The chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., told The Associated Press last week that he didn't anticipate action on a greenhouse gas bill until 2010.

“All of this comes at a very high price. It's not conjecture,” said Ben Lieberman, a policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. Government regulation will “chase away” industry, exacerbating the economic crisis, he said.

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer, in a recent interview with the AP, warned that budget deficits may take a toll on efforts to cut emissions. “You can't pick an empty pocket,” he said.

Yet the World Bank, a leading investor in developing countries, has no plans to slow capital flowing to projects designed to curb emissions and trim energy consumption, said spokesman Roger Morier. In the previous fiscal year, the World Bank injected about $6 billion to help developing countries meet the challenge of global warming.

“We are seeing no evidence that our client governments are planning any retrenchments, either,” Morier said via e-mail. “On the contrary, as governments consider what levers to pull to stimulate their economies, some will opt for fiscal expansion, which would translate into expanded public-sector spending on job-creating programs, such as infrastructure investments or cleaner energy projects.”

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