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Bush Outlines Proposal on Climate Change
John M. Broder, New York Times
WASHINGTON – Seeking to dispel the widespread impression that his administration is isolated on the issue of global warming, President Bush said today that the world’s biggest polluters can limit damage to the atmosphere while still promoting prosperity.
“Our guiding principle is clear,” the president said at a conference on climate change and energy security. “We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.”
Mr. Bush proposed the creation of an “international clean technology fund,” to be supported by contributions from governments around the world, that would help finance clean-energy projects in developing countries. The president said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. would lead discussions with other countries on starting that fund.
“No one country has all the answers, including mine,” Mr. Bush said. “The best way to tackle this problem is to think creatively and to learn from others’ experiences and to come together on a way to achieve the objectives we share. Together, our nations will pave the way for a new international approach on greenhouse emissions.”
The president’s calls for each country to decide for itself how to rein in pollution, and his refusal to embrace mandatory measures, have set the United States apart from other countries, and this morning’s appearance at the State Department conference probably did not do much to change that situation.
“Smart technology does not just materialize by itself,” John Ashton, a special adviser on climate change to the British foreign secretary, said afterward. Mr. Ashton, who has said that voluntary measures are ineffective, said “smart technology” requires government commitment and investment, and he noted that Mr. Bush did not state a specific goal for reducing carbon emissions.
(28 September 2007)
Europeans angry after Bush climate speech ‘charade’
Ewen MacAskill, Guardian
· US isolated as China and India refuse to back policy
· President claims he can lead world on emissions
George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated yesterday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress.
European ministers, diplomats and officials attending the Washington conference were scathing, particularly in private, over Mr Bush’s failure once again to commit to binding action on climate change.
Although the US and Britain have been at odds over the environment since the early days of the Bush administration, the gap has never been as wide as yesterday.
Britain and almost all other European countries, including Germany and France, want mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. Mr Bush, while talking yesterday about a “new approach” and “a historic undertaking”, remains totally opposed.
The conference, attended by more than 20 countries, including China, India, Britain, France and Germany, broke up with the US isolated, according to non-Americans attending. One of those present said even China and India, two of the biggest polluters, accepted that the voluntary approach proposed by the US was untenable and favoured binding measures, even though they disagreed with the Europeans over how this would be achieved.
A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major UN conference on climate change in Bali in December.
(29 September 2007)
Coverage in U.S. media:
Bush struggles to stay relevant in climate debate (Reuters)
At Climate Meeting, Bush Does Not Specify Goals (New York Times)
On Warming, Bush Vows U.S. ‘Will Do Its Part (Washington Post)
The real story behind the Bush administration’s climate claims
David Roberts, Gristmill
Fool me once …
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In preparation for the Major Economies Meeting, the Bush administration distributed a matrix to invited countries, to assist them in documenting their national and international efforts on climate change. The U.S. government circulated a draft documenting activities in the U.S., trying to give the impression that the U.S. is taking meaningful action on climate change.
A number of environmental organizations have analyzed the claims in the U.S. matrix. Their analysis can be found in the shaded right hand column of this document, to help reporters understand the real story behind the administration’s claims.
Groups contributing to this effort include:
- American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
- Climate Solutions
- Greenpeace
- National Environmental Trust
- Natural Resources Defense Council
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- U.S. Climate Action Network
See the fact-checked matrix here.
(1 October 2007)
Pew’s Claussen discusses climate week meetings, says U.S. “out of step” on policy (video)
OnPoint, E&E News
Last week, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department convened meetings to discuss international approaches to addressing climate change. After a week of discussions, has any progress been made? What impact will the outcomes of these two high-level meetings have on Framework Convention negotiations?
During today’s OnPoint, Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change gives a play-by-play look at the State Department’s major economies meeting. She also discusses the impact the United Nations’ meeting will have on the upcoming Framework Convention talks in Bali. Claussen explains why many countries participating in the major economies meeting remain skeptical about the U.S.’s goals. She also highlights the successes of climate week.
(1 October 2007)
Bush Administration Pushes Climate Change Action into the Future
David Biello, Scientific American
The president says cutting greenhouse gas pollution should be a “long term goal”-but offers no hint of what that goal might be.
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President Bush this week called on the world’s top emitters of greenhouse gases warming the world to set a “long-term goal” for reducing such pollution, but was vague on how to complete the task.
“By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem,” President Bush told representatives of 17 nations attending the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change held in Washington, D.C., this week. “We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.” The nations represented at the conference emit more than 80 percent of the globe’s greenhouse gases.
Bush proposed that a conference be held by the summer to formally establish such a goal and pave the way for a “global consensus at the U.N. in 2009.”
Strategies to meet the goal would vary by country and largely rely on advanced technology such as capturing the carbon dioxide spewed by coal-burning power plants; the Bush vision also foresees gasoline alternatives, nuclear power and an international clean technology fund to promote research into carbon-free energy sources. “The United States will do our part,” Bush said. “We take this issue seriously.”
Environmentalists hailed Bush’s acknowledgement that climate change is a fact and largely man-made. But they say the proposal does not go nearly far enough. “He let the moment go by without making any change in his dogged refusal to put real limits on America’s global warming pollution,” says David Doniger, climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental group. “His opposition to capping and reducing our global warming pollution is the single biggest obstacle to making progress either here at home or with other countries.”
(28 September 2007)
Contributor Rick Dworsky writes:
As Rome burns… “The Decider” administration is toasting marshmallows.
