Saturday, November 11, 2000
President Clinton:
Meeting the Challenge of Global Warming
November 11, 2000
Today, in an address broadcast over the Internet, President Clinton will
announce the completion of the first comprehensive assessment of the
potential impacts of climate change across the United States, and will call
for a comprehensive new clean air strategy that can significantly reduce
emissions from U.S. power plants that contribute to global warming. On the
eve of international climate change negotiations, the President also will
reaffirm the U.S. commitment to work with other nations to ensure a strong,
cost-effective agreement to fight global warming. The Internet address can
be viewed beginning at 8:00 a.m. today at www.whitehouse.gov.
Assessing the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the United States. A
report today to the President and Congress provides the most detailed
assessment ever of ways in which climate change may affect our nation. The
report, Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential
Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, was requested by Congress
and undertaken by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a federal
interagency science program. The assessment is the product of three years
of analysis, with contributions from hundreds of the nation?s leading
climate scientists. The report has been through multiple rounds of
scientific peer review, and was released in draft in June for public review
and comment. Key findings of the report, which can be found at
www.gcrio.org/NationalAssessment/, include:
- Increased warming. Assuming continued growth in world greenhouse gas
emissions, temperatures in the United States will rise 5-9?F (3-5?C) on
average in the next 100 years. Impacts will differ across regions of the
U.S.
- Damage to vulnerable ecosystems. Some ecosystems could be lost
entirely, such as alpine meadows in the Rocky Mountains and
low-lying barrier islands. Southeast forests could be displaced by
grasslands, coral reefs may further decline, and losses in local
biodiversity may accelerate.
- Widespread water impacts. Climate change will impact water in every
region, but the vulnerabilities vary. Many regions are very likely
to experience increased droughts and floods, and changing patterns of
rainfall. The West, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska could see changes in the
thickness of snowpack and the timing of snowmelt.. We can expect
increased infrastructure damage from flooding in coastal areas and
melting in permafrost areas.
- Prudent action can ensure secure food supply and protect public
health. U.S. crop productivity is very likely to increase over
the next few decades, but the gains will not be uniform across the nation.
Maintaining our nation's public health infrastructure, from water
treatment systems to emergency shelters, will be important for
minimizing the impacts of water-borne diseases, heat stress, air pollution,
extreme weather events, and diseases transmitted by insects and
rodents.
- Mixed impact on forests. Forest productivity is likely to increase in
the short-term as trees respond to higher carbon dioxide levels.
However, over the longer term, changes in factors such as fire, insects,
droughts, and disease may decrease forest productivity. Climate
change will cause long-term shifts in forest species, such as sugar
maples moving north out of the United States.
- Uncertainties remain. Significant uncertainties remain in the science
underlying regional climate changes and their impacts. Further
research will improve understanding. Some aspects and impacts of climate
change will be totally unanticipated as complex systems respond to
ongoing climate change in unforeseeable ways.
A Comprehensive Approach to Limiting Pollution from Power Plants. The
President today will call for a comprehensive approach to limiting harmful
emissions from US electric power plants--including regulation of carbon
dioxide, the largest contributor to man-made global warming. This "four
pollutant" approach would establish national emissions standards, or 'caps'
on sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides, and mercury as well as carbon
dioxide (CO2). Electricity generation is the largest source of air
pollution in the U.S., releasing more than two thirds of the nation's
sulfur dioxide, and approximately one third of carbon dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, and mercury emissions. These pollutants contribute to disease and
premature death from smog, soot, and toxic air pollution, worsened
visibility in national parks, acid rain and water pollution, and global
warming. Many of these pollutants are emitted by older power plants that
are specifically exempted from clean air rules.
The President will call for a flexible and market-based emissions trading
program, modeled on the Clean Air Act's acid rain program, that would allow
the power sector to meet these strong goals in a cost-effective way. Such
an integrated strategy covering all four pollutants would provide planning
certainty to the utility industry, and greatly reduce the cost of cutting
the emissions on a pollutant-by-pollutant basis. This approach has
strong bipartisan support in Congress and among industry leaders.
A Global Solution to a Global Problem -- Upcoming International
Negotiations on Climate Change. Next week, representatives of more than
160 nations will gather in The Hague in The Netherlands to shape an
international response to the world's greatest environmental challenge:
global warming. In his Internet address, the President will reaffirm the
strong commitment of the United States to negotiating a climate change
treaty that has environmental integrity, is cost-effective, and promotes
the meaningful participation of key developing countries in the fight
against global warming.
In these negotiations, the United States will:
- Seek strong, market-friendly rules to fight climate change, and oppose
restrictions on the use the Kyoto Protocol's innovative flexible
mechanisms, such as emissions trading;
- Urge an airtight accounting system and binding legal consequences for
failure to meet targets;
- Seek appropriate credit for agricultural and forest sinks which help
sequester carbon dioxide and therefore reduce global warming; and
- Urge a prompt start to the Clean Development Mechanism, to help
developing nations establish clean energy infrastructures, with
a plan to put the rules in place necessary to ensure its workable operation
and environmental integrity.
The United States is Fighting Global Warming at Home. The United States
has made significant progress in reducing the growth of greenhouse gas
emissions that contribute to global warming. For example, in 1998 and
1999, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions grew by just one percent while the
overall Gross Domestic Product grew by 8 percent. These figures suggest
that efforts to increase energy efficiency and implement new technologies
have begun to "de-link" economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions.
As part if its overall effort to fight climate change, the Administration
has secured a more than 50% increase (FY 1998 to FY 2001) in annual funding
for improvements in efficiency and research and development to help develop
these new technologies. Research by the Partnership for a New Generation
of Vehicles, a joint business-government program begun by Vice President
Gore in 1993, has led to the development by the major automakers of cars
that achieve 70 to 80 miles a gallon. The technologies developed under
PNGV have also contributed to announcements by both Ford and General Motors
that they will increase fuel economy in many large vehicles by 15-25% by
2005. The President has issued a series of Executive Orders to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, including efforts to triple the production of
bioenergy and biofuels to 10% of US energy use by 2010; to decrease oil use
in government vehicles by 20 percent by 2005; and increase energy
efficiency of government buildings by 35 percent by 2010.
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