Bush shifts, follow me?
9/29/2007
Nice idea, but meaningless
Climate Change: Filling the Bush Gap
By: Bryan Walsh
TIME
September 29, 2007
Climate
change geeks with a thing for international conferences — like me —
were spoilt for choice this past week. You could rub shoulders with
national leaders from over 80 countries — or just their junior
advisers, depending on the color of your badge — at the United Nations
high-level meeting on climate. You could Amtrak down to the White House
and hear President George W. Bush tell the world's major economies that
this global warming thing might actually be a problem and that we
should maybe consider doing something about it eventually. Or you could
catch the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in
where billionaire executives, extremely smart people and star-struck
journalists listened raptly as Brad Pitt detailed his plans to rebuild
Of the
three, it was the Clinton meeting that proved the best bet — and not
just because of the Tastes of the World cocktail reception at the
Sheraton on Thursday evening. As part of his Clinton Climate
Initiative, launched in August 2006, the former President has brought
together business and philanthropy to generate locally focused efforts
to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.
While President Bush offered mostly empty rhetoric, on Friday afternoon
reeled off pledge after concrete pledge for his climate initiative:
$150 million to harness geothermal energy in Africa, $5 million for the
for Climate Protection in the U.S., $210 million for carbon offsetting
in the developing world. While UN action on climate change remains
stalled by the deadlock between the developed and the developing world,
The success of the Clinton Initiative is emblematic of how people who care about climate change in
Lobbying has shifted to the corporate world, where large companies like
Wal-Mart have implemented energy efficiency polices far more aggressive
than anything coming from the government. High-profile celebrities like
Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio have made green cool for consumers. And
hardly a day goes by without news of a leap forward on solar, wind or
hybrid cars, thanks to private investment — again, in the absence of
significant government spending.
So what is
doing? While it's heartening that President Bush now does seem to
believe that global warming is real, this week's meeting of the world's
major carbon emitters offered no evidence that he is willing to meet
the climate challenge. The President continued to reject Kyoto-style
mandatory caps on carbon emissions and instead endorsed an
"international clean technology fund" to finance alternative energy
projects in developing nations. Nice idea, but meaningless
without real spending to back it up. "Bush says we need technology, but
spends no money," says Nordhaus. "Bush says we need to reduce
emissions, but only voluntarily. Both positions are utterly cynical."
That much was clear to many of the European attendees in
at the end of the year. But the good news is that if Bush is unlikely
to move on global warming between now and the end of the term, there is
another branch of the government that just might.
Currently
there are several pieces of climate change legislation floating around
Congress, and with the Democrats in power, there's a chance that one
might pass.
"You're
actually starting to see Congress talk seriously about commitment to
climate change," says Annie Petsonk, international counsel at
Environmental Defense. "Foreign countries are starting to recognize
that." So it turns out that the hot place to be this week wasn't the
UN, or the White House or even
________
[more]
Little more than empty words … Too little, too late …
Bush Seeks New Image on Global Warming
By: John Heilprin
Associated Press/Washington Post
September 29, 2007
-- President Bush's call on Friday for a new fund to reduce global
warming fell flat with Europeans and environmentalists who say
U.N.-mandated cuts in greenhouse gases are what's needed.
To
show he meant business, Bush designated his treasury secretary to talk
to other nations about getting worldwide contributions to the fund. The
money would pay for clean-energy projects in poor countries.
"This
here was a great step for the Americans and a small step for mankind,"
Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said after Bush's
speech at the State Department before representatives of the nations
that are the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. "In
substance, we are still far apart."
In his speech, Bush acknowledged that climate change is real and that human activity is a factor.
"By
setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem, and by setting
this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it," he said.
"We share a common responsibility: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
while keeping our economies growing."
The president's speech capped two days of talks at a White House-sponsored climate conference that brought together the
that are not required to make cuts under the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.
treaty for reducing greenhouse gases that expires in 2012.
Most
of the talk behind closed doors focused on Japan's proposal that
nations agree to cut global emissions by half of their current levels
by 2050, said Bush's top environmental adviser, James Connaughton. A
Japanese statement to other conference members called that proposal "a
vision and not a legally binding target."
The conference included representatives of other major industrial nations such as
Other participants came from
"There
was lots of talk about mandatory caps," said Yvo de Boer, the top U.N.
climate official. "I don't think it would have been realistic to expect
at this first meeting to expect any country to change its position."
He said he found Bush's speech "encouraging because it indicates that the
wants to develop this discussion among the major economies, get into
the substance, including on the question of goals and the type of
regime that's appropriate, and then feed that into the larger U.N.
process."
Bush
said his purpose was to begin setting a new worldwide goal for cutting
carbon dioxide emissions after 2012 and to help developing nations pay
for the changes that would be needed. The president said the reduction
goal should be finished by next summer, along with ways to measure
progress toward it.
He
said each nation should establish for itself what methods it will use
to rein in the pollution problem without stunting economic growth.
But he
refuses to sign onto mandatory emission-reduction obligations,
preferring to encourage the development of new technologies and other
voluntary measures, and won't participate in any talks toward a global
agreement that do not include energy guzzlers from the developing world.
Bush made clear, however, that he saw his talks as complementary to the U.N. negotiations over what will succeed the
treaty after 2012. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held a summit
Monday to grease the wheels for an agreement in December in
It may be too little, too late.
John
Ashton, a special representative on climate change for the British
foreign secretary, said: "One of the striking features of this meeting
is how isolated this administration has become. There is absolutely no
support that I can see in the international community that we can drive
this effort on the basis of voluntary efforts."
C. Boyden Gray, the
"The British might be isolating themselves," he said. "It's been a little uphill because of skepticism in
The
ball is now in Congress' court, said Fred Krupp, president of
Environmental Defense, who was one of the few outsiders to address the
panel of mostly midlevel government ministers.
"Congress
needs to lead. The president is not giving us the leadership we need.
Ultimately what we need are mandatory caps," Krupp said. "No air
pollution problem in the world has ever been solved without having
legal limits."
Democrats Barbara Boxer of
who both chair committees in the Senate, said they would provide that
leadership and work toward legislation with mandatory carbon controls
and a cap-and-trade system.
Boxer
called Bush's speech an improvement on what he has said about climate
change in the past "but unless it is followed up with mandatory cuts in
global warming pollution, it will amount to little more than empty words."
At the same time, the fact that the
Until
recently, said Emil Salim, an economist and member of the Indonesian
president's council of advisers, Bush offered "no dialogue on the Kyoto
Protocol whatsoever. This time, the members of the Kyoto Protocol are
invited to discuss. So from that point of view, there is some
improvement," he said in an interview. "But on the other hand, I think
it has more to do with the domestic politics, because you have
election."
____
Achieved nothing …
Bush Shifts Approach on Climate
The president urges the reduction of greenhouse gases to slow global warming, but calls for nations to meet goals voluntarily.
By: James Gerstenzang
September 29, 2007
-- President Bush, who took office skeptical about global warming, said
Friday that the nations emitting the most greenhouse gases -- a group
that includes the
But he
also insisted on voluntary goals for such efforts, which he said could
be met largely through new technology that would create "an age of
clean energy."
He set
a two-year deadline for nations in a U.S.-led conference to reach a
consensus on how to cut emissions, a schedule that punts the decision
to his successor.
In
addition, he proposed creating an international fund, with
contributions from governments, to help make clean-energy technology
more available.
Critics
chastised Bush for not seeking immediate and specific steps to increase
energy efficiency, expand use of renewable fuels and move toward
mandatory emissions restrictions similar to those set to expire in 2012
under the Kyoto Protocol -- an international pact the
The
president's speech represented a concerted effort by his administration
to seize control of the debate over global warming. At the same time,
he sought to fend off calls for dramatic action that would mandate
specific reductions in heat-trapping gases such as those given off when
fossil fuels are burned.
Bush
spoke on the second and final day of a 17-nation conference at the
State Department that brought together officials from the world's major
economies and energy consumers.
Under
pressure to demonstrate action on global warming last spring, the White
House announced plans for the conference shortly before the Group of
Eight nations --
James
Connaughton, who as chairman of the White House Council on
Environmental Quality oversaw this week's meeting, said it met his goal
of putting "issues on the table."
But Mogens
Carl, the European Union's director general for the environment, told
reporters after the sessions that there needed to be talk about
specific targets for emissions reductions, rather than broad goals.
deputy environmental minister, applauded the Bush administration for
signaling its readiness to engage on global warming. But he, too,
emphasized the need for concrete, binding caps on emissions.
The
global warming debate has proved troublesome for Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney, both of whom spent several years in the oil
business. Bush rarely speaks of it at such length.
Reflecting
a shift from his initial skepticism, the president acknowledged the
widely reported and respected conclusion of the U.N. Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change that, in his words, "global temperatures are
rising and that this is caused largely by human activities."
He
began his remarks by saying that "energy security and climate change
are two of the greatest challenges of our time," and that "the
By
setting a goal for reduced emissions, Bush said, "we acknowledge there
is a problem. And by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing
something about it."
With
the demand for energy forecast by many experts to rise more than 50% by
2030, Bush challenged the conference participants to find a way to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions while meeting needs for economic growth.
Bush
called for "a new international approach on greenhouse gas emissions"
-- one that would commit the world's largest producers of the gases to
set goals for reducing them, and to do so by next summer at a meeting
of heads of state. The program would include a system to measure
progress toward the goals, and would be followed by a "global
consensus" at the United Nations by 2009 on emissions reductions.
"Each
nation must decide for itself the right mix of tools and technologies
to achieve results that are measurable and environmentally effective,"
the president said.
Nowhere
in the 20-minute speech did Bush suggest that the targets would be
specific limits, with penalties if they are not met. Nor did he use the
word "voluntary," which would have drawn attention to his opposition to
the sort of mandates favored by many environmentalists.
Alden
Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned
Scientists and a veteran observer of international global warming
negotiations, said the conference had "achieved nothing."
He
also said: "As long as the White House continues to oppose mandatory
pollution limits, it is part of the problem, not the solution."
Sen.
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works, said that without mandating specific
reductions in pollution, Bush's speech amounted to "little more than
empty words."
Along with heavily industrialized nations, the conference's participants included
___
A total charade … a total failure
Europeans angry after Bush climate speech 'charade'
US isolated as
By: Ewen MacAskill in
The Guardian
September 29 2007
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
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.
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
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
"It
was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the diplomat
said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader.
He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no
sign of leadership. It was a total failure."
John Ashton,
has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialised
countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of
voluntary commitments.
"The most inspiring example of leadership this week was the speech on Monday at the UN by Arnold Schwarzenegger."
The governor of
Other European governments expressed similar sentiments.
Although
many of those attending had predicted the conference would break up
without significant agreement, there had been hopes that Mr Bush, in
search of a legacy, might produce a surprise. Instead, he stuck to his
previous position, shunning mandatory caps in favour of clean coal,
nuclear power and developing clean energy technology.
In
contrast with the early years of his presidency when he expressed
scepticism about climate change and whether humans were responsible, Mr
Bush acknowledged yesterday "energy security and climate change are two
of the great challenges of our time. The
He
added: "Our guiding principle is clear: 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."
Instead
of mandatory caps, he emphasised a need to shift to clean coal, nuclear
energy and new clean technology. He also proposed a new international
technology fund but did not say how much the
would put into it. He reiterated a need for Americans to shift from oil
to ethanol for their cars. "We're working to develop next-generation
plug-in hybrids that will be able to travel nearly 40 miles without
using a drop of gasoline. And your automobile doesn't have to look like
a golf cart," he said.
Elizabeth
Bast, of Friends of the Earth, described the conference as a diversion.
"We have heard it before. He put a huge emphasis on technology and does
not speak to binding targets, and there is a great emphasis on coal and
nuclear energy," she said.
Backstory
Many
leading the way. The governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has signed a law
requiring a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, with penalties
for industries that do not comply.
