Washington (Platts)--18Nov2008

US President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday said the country under his
administration will "once again engage vigorously" in international talks
designed to develop a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement to slash greenhouse gas
emissions.

In taped remarks scheduled to be delivered at a US Governors' Global
Climate Summit in Los Angeles, Obama said the US "cannot meet this [climate
change] challenge alone. Solving this problem will require all of us working
together," the president-elect told the conference.

"I understand that your meeting is being attended by government officials
from over a dozen countries, including the UK, Canada and Mexico, Brazil and
Chile, Poland and Australia, India and Indonesia. And I look forward to
working with all nations to meet this challenge in the coming years."

Turning to December's UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting
in Poland, where international delegates will discuss a post-Kyoto agreement,
Obama said, "[l]et me also say a special word to the delegates from around the
world who will gather at Poland next month: your work is vital to the planet.
While I won't be president at the time of your meeting and while the United
States has only one President at a time, I've asked members of Congress who
are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they
learn there."

"And 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. Now is the time to confront
this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no
longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too
serious."

Obama commended efforts by individual states, including California, to
reduce carbon emissions, adding that "too often, Washington has failed to show
the same kind of leadership."

"That will change when I take office. 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, repeating
campaign promises that he will pursue a federal cap-and-trade program designed
to cut US GHG emissions 80% by 2050.

"Further, we will invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private sector
efforts to build a clean energy future. We will invest in solar power, wind
power, and next generation biofuels. We will tap nuclear power, while making
sure its safe. And we will develop clean coal technologies," he told the
conferees.

"Stopping climate change won't be easy. It won't happen overnight. But I
promise you this: When I am president, any governor who's willing to promote
clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that's
willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any
nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have
an ally in the United States of America."

--Christine Cordner, christine_cordner@platts.com