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President Obama and Climate Change
At a UN conference
in Bonn, Germany, President Barack Obama's climate-change team,
led by chief negotiator Todd Stem, assured that the US would
participate fervently with global efforts to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions.
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"This is a new
start for the U.S. and new hope to climate change, ....we
recognized our unique responsibility ... as the largest historic
emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG)," which has created a problem
threatening the entire world.
But he also warned
that the US does not have a magic wand to ride in on a
white horse and make it all work easily within a short time
frame, partly due to Congressional constrains and target attainability.
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"We are very glad
to be back. We want to make up for lost time, and we are seized
with the urgency of the task before us," Stern said to the 2,600
UN negotiators, who responded with a sustained applause, much in
contrast to the booing given to the Bush delegates that rejected
the binding target reductions during the Bali negotiations in
2007.
"We all have to do
this together." expressing the need for more commitments from
rising economic powers and carbon dioxide emitters like Brazil,
India and China.
Delegates are negotiating to reach a global accord on the
reduction targets of greenhouse gases (GHG) reductions to be in
time for the December summit in Copenhagen, to replace the Kyoto
Protocol, which called for many industrial nations to cut gas
emissions but was rejected by the United States and a handful of
other countries.
Many UN delegates want major cuts in greenhouse-gas
production—25 - 40% below 1990 levels—by 2020, higher than
Obama's corresponding target of 16%.
America Goes Green
Obama makes good his promise to protect the
planet by allowing states to set tough laws on car emissions and
planning the appointment of a new climate change envoy
Barack Obama, with the Transportation Secretary,
Ray LaHood, and the Environmental Protection Agency administrator,
Lisa Jackson, signs an order to help California impose stricter
emissions limits.
(The Independent Tuesday, 27 January 2009)
New Funding Boosts Carbon Capture, Solar
Energy ...
$300 million infusion reflects
Obama Administration’s broad, aggressive research and development
strategy
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today
announced more than $300 million worth of investments that will
boost a range of clean energy technologies – including carbon
capture from coal, solar power, and high efficiency cars and
trucks. The move reflects the Obama Administration’s commitment to
a broad based strategy that will create millions of jobs while
transforming the way we use and produce energy.
“There’s enormous potential for new jobs
and reduced carbon pollution just by implementing existing
technologies like energy efficiency and wind energy, but we also
need to develop transformative new solutions,” said Secretary Chu.
“As a scientist, I remain optimistic that these breakthroughs are
within our reach, and investments like these are an important part
of achieving them.” (
USDOE.new June 11, 2009 )
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| (Pic: Obama's Climate Dream
Team) |
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Obama Affirms Climate Change Goals
President-elect Barack Obama vows to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050, and to invest $150 billion in new energy-saving technologies.
“Now is the time to confront this challenge
once and for all,” Mr. Obama said. “The science is beyond
dispute…Delay is no longer an option.
Denial is no longer an acceptable response.” Some industry leaders and members of
Congress expressed concern that such proposal would
impose too great a cost on an already-stressed economy. Mr. Obama rejected that view,
defending that jump-starting an energy efficient economy will save
money over the long haul. “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,”
(Published:
NYTimes /2008/11/19)
His plan:
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Ensure 10% of
US Electricity Comes from clean and renewable sources
like solar, wind and geothermal by 2012, and 25% by
2025.
Help create five million
new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next
ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy
future. |
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Weatherize one
million homes annually. |
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Develop and
deploy clean coal technology. |
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Prioritize the
construction of the Alaska natural gas pipeline.
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| Implement cap-and-trade program to
reduce GHG emissions by 80% by 2050. |
| Make
the U.S. a leader on climate change.
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Mandate all new vehicles
to be flexi fuel . Put 1 million hybrid cars
on the road by 2015. |
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Develop second generation
biofuels and infrastructure |
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Establish a national low carbon
fuel standard, giving
incentives to private sector to reduce the carbon of fuel by 5%
within 5 years and 10% within 10 years |
Obama said many times during the campaign
that he would meet with
US worst enemies in the name of world peace. Climate change is a
far graver and for more preventable threat to the health and
well-being of future generations of Americans than any current
national security threat.
(2008/12/04)
“We cannot afford more of the
same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake.
Global warming is not a someday problem, it is now. We are already
breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of
forest fires, the periods of drought. By 2050 famine could force
more than 250 million from their homes. The polar ice caps
are now melting faster than science had ever predicted.
This
is not the future I want for my daughters.
It's not the future any
of us want for our children. If
we act now and we act boldly, it
doesn't have to be.” (Portsmouth, NH, 10/8/07] |
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(Obama:... not the future I want for my
daughters. Obama & Family) |
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Obama's Climate Dream Team
To carry out this revolution in climate change policy, Obama has
appointed a climatologist's dream team of scientists, regulators and
political operatives to energy and environment positions.
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Nobel Prize co-recipient in
physics in 1997, Steven Chu to lead the Energy
Department, to devote seeking technologies that could
slow climate change. Chu is professor of physics and
molecular and cell biology at the University of
California, Berkeley. He has been an advocate for
research into solar power and
advanced biomass, in particular biofuels made from
grasses which won't compete for space with farmland. Chu
has criticized corn-based ethanol. |
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Lisa Jackson,
a chemical engineer with 20 years of Government service,
former commissioner of New Jersey's Environmental
Protection Department, to head the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), to draft climate change
policies and regulations on GHG emissions regulations. She
was the lead author of arguments from a coalition of
environmentalists and states claiming that the then
(Bush) EPA had a legal obligation to address greenhouse
gas emissions from vehicles, and won the case. |
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Carol Browner, who served
for eight years as head of Bill Clinton's EPA, is
appointed to head the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, to coordinate agencies that play a
role in environmental and energy policy. |
References and related news:
Obama picks a green jobs leader for Labor Secretary: Hilda Solis
For NOAA head, Obama appoints yet another scientist who gets
climate
Obama’s strongest message on climate yet: John Holdren to be
named Science Adviser
The Independent: America goes green
Obama's Draft Budget Projects Cap-and-Trade
Revenues: Sciam
Obama Budget Boosts Green Spending: Money.cnn
/2009/02/26
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