President Bush today outlined what he described as a new initiative to combat global warming, calling on other nations to work with the United States in setting a long-term goal by the end of 2008 for reductions in greenhouse gases.
In a speech in Washington, Bush signaled a change in tone on global warming ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit meeting in Germany, where the issue is high on the agenda for the gathering of the world's most industrialized nations. But critics promptly complained that Bush's proposal falls short of the urgent action needed to sharply reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and head off potential catastrophe in the future.
The administration's plan involves cutting tariff barriers to the sharing of environmental technology and holding a series of meetings, starting this fall, on ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions by an agreed amount by about 2050. Bush wants this target to be set by the end of 2008.
The White House made clear, however, that the administration would continue to reject proposals advanced by European nations to deal with global warming through caps on carbon emissions and a global carbon-trading program that would allow countries to meet limits on carbon dioxide levels by buying and selling credits.
"We do not endorse global carbon trading," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters before Bush's speech.
European leaders, notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have called for measures to limit the rise of global temperatures by effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Addressing the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, a coalition that advocates robust American foreign aid, Bush indicated a shift in attitude on global warming. He previously has resisted European calls to set specific targets and deadlines for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, insisting that the issue can be addressed chiefly by developing new technology. He continued to stress a need for technological advances today but also indicated that he wants the United States to lead talks on global targets.
"We need to harness the power of technology to help nations meet their growing energy needs while protecting the environment and addressing the challenge of global climate change," Bush said. "In recent years, science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it. The United States takes this issue seriously..."
Accompanying the allies' pleas have been calls for action by major corporations such as Dow Chemical, Shell, General Electric and General Motors...
"We're also going to work to conclude talks with other nations on eliminating tariffs and other barriers to clean energy technologies and services by the end of this year," Bush said.
Fair enough. If political pressure and interest in selling pollution control technologies drive America forward on the environmental spectrum, so be it. (Andrew Gumbel of the Huffington Post has a funny, cynical take on Bush's announcement.) However, the lack of action on emissions caps is disturbing, as is Bush's faith that technology can cure everything for, in his father's words "the American way of life is not negotiable" during environmental deals. Here are excerpts from Bush's speech on climate change. Again, he seems to be tying his environmental message with opening up foreign markets to trade in green technologies:
The White House website also has more on Bush's proposal for "A New Climate Change Framework." Notice the emphasis on China and India joining in. Don't be surprised to hear from those countries thinking of this proposal as a way to slow down their development. Anyway, I'll bet the Competitive Enterprise Institute ain't too happy about Bush's latest enviro-stylings.In recent years, science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it. The United States takes this issue seriously. The new initiative I am outlining today will contribute to the important dialogue that will take place in Germany next week. The United States will work with other nations to establish a new framework on greenhouse gas emissions for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
So my proposal is this: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases. To help develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce most greenhouse gas emissions, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China.
In addition to this long-term global goal, each country would establish midterm national targets, and programs that reflect their own mix of energy sources and future energy needs. Over the course of the next 18 months, our nations would bring together industry leaders from different sectors of our economies, such as power generation and alternative fuels and transportation. These leaders will form working groups that will cooperate on ways to share clean energy technology and best practices.
It's important to ensure that we get results, and so we will create a strong and transparent system for measuring each country's performance. This new framework would help our nations fulfill our responsibilities under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. The United States will work with all nations that are part of this convention to adapt to the impacts of climate change, gain access to clean and more energy-efficient technologies, and promote sustainable forestry and agriculture.
The way to meet this challenge of energy and global climate change is through technology, and the United States is in the lead. The world is on the verge of great breakthroughs that will help us become better stewards of the environment. Over the past six years, my administration has spent, along with the Congress, more than $12 billion in research on clean energy technology. We're the world's leader when it comes to figuring out new ways to power our economy and be good stewards of the environment.
We're investing in new technologies to produce electricity in cleaner ways, including solar and wind energy, clean coal technologies. If we can get a breakthrough in clean coal technologies, it's going to help the developing world immeasurably, and at the same time, help protect our environment.
We're spending a lot of money on clean, safe nuclear power. If you're truly interested in cleaning up the environment, or interested in renewable sources of energy, the best way to do so is through safe nuclear power. We're investing in new technologies that transform the way we fuel our cars and trucks. We're expanding the use of hybrid and clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel.
We're spending a lot of your money in figuring out ways to produce ethanol from products other than corn. One of these days, we'll be making fuel to power our automobiles from wood chips, to switchgrasses, to agricultural wastes. I think it makes sense to have our farmers growing energy, so that we don't have to import it from parts of the world where they may not like us too much. And it's good for our environment, as well.
We're pressing on with battery research for plug-in hybrid vehicles that can be powered by electricity from a wall socket, instead of gasoline. We're continuing to research and to advance hydrogen-powered vehicles that emit pure water instead of exhaust fumes; we're taking steps to make sure these technologies reach the market, setting new mandatory fuel standards that require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by the year 2017. It's a mandatory fuel standard. We want to reduce our gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years, which will not only help our national security, it will make us better stewards of the environment. The United States is taking the lead, and that's the message I'm going to take to the G8.
Last week, the Department of Energy announced that in 2006, our carbon emissions decreased by 1.3 percent while our economy grew by 3.3 percent. This experience shows that a strong and growing economy can deliver both a better life for its people and a cleaner environment at the same time.
At the G8 summit, I'm going to encourage world leaders to increase their own investments in research and development. I'm looking forward to working with them. I'm looking forward to discussing ways to encourage more investment in developing nations by making low-cost financing options for clean energy a priority of the international development banks.
We're also going to work to conclude talks with other nations on eliminating tariffs and other barriers to clean energy technologies and services by the end of year. If you are truly committed to helping the environment, nations need to get rid of their tariffs, need to get rid of those barriers that prevent new technologies from coming into their countries. We'll help the world's poorest nations reduce emissions by giving them government-developed technologies at low cost, or in some case, no cost at all.
UPDATE: Australia and Japan are now cheering Bush on, or so it seems with regard to Bush's climate change initiative. From the Financial Times:
US President George W Bush won endorsements Friday from two more key allies for his new global warming iniative as both Australia and Japan said they were willing to back his plan for a post-Kyoto Protocol without specific caps on carbon emissions.
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, last week launched Japan’s own plan for an inclusive but non-binding arrangement aimed at halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Tokyo’s position is that binding targets have failed because they leave the world’s biggest emitters – especially the US, China and India – on the sidelines. It is championing a more inclusive, but vaguer approach, in which the world’s biggest emitters pledge to use technology to tackle global warming.
“I believe the United States too is finally getting serious in dealing with global warming,” Mr Abe said on Friday.
His chief cabinet secretary, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, said: “We believe Prime Minister Abe and President Bush share the same perspective and look forward to achieving significant progress at the G-8 level at [the meeting in] Heiligendamm [next week].”
In Australia, Alexander Downer, foreign minister, said Canberra had already told the US it would be ”a willing participant” in the latest initiative.
A special government task force on Friday called for Australia to introduce a domestic carbon trading system by 2012 to help reduce emissions, although it fell short of recommending specific emissions targets.
Australia’s own plans for a carbon trading scheme would ”fit into the broader architecture that President Bush is proposing because what he says is that individual countries need to set their own individual policies, tailored to their own circumstances,” Mr Downer said. “That makes a lot of sense because no two countries have the same circumstance.”
As a sparsely-populated country of 20m people, Australia accounts for 1.5 per cent of world carbon dioxide emissions. But it has also come under criticism of its contribution to rising emissions from China and elsewhere as the world’s largest exporter of coal...
Japan is already claiming credit for bringing China on board, following a commitment by Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, to prioritise the issue. Mr Tsuruoka said: “China will participate very seriously in the future framework discussion on climate change. This was a significant move by the Chinese government since it was endorsed by the premier himself.”
What sort of bite the US proposal will have without any firm caps on emissions is questionable. Unless proven otherwise, I think the proposal's bark is worse than its bite; "speak loudly and carry little stick."
