« Previous | Main | Next »

Bush Plans Partnership on Greenhouse Gas Reductions

May 31, 2007 2:24 PM

ABC News' Karen Travers Reports:  President Bush today called on major nations to agree to a long-term global goal to reduce greenhouse gases.  The project will begin with a series of meetings in fall 2007.

The purpose of the gatherings is to bring together countries that produce the most greenhouse gases with countries that have the fastest growing economies, such as India and China. It would also bring together industry leaders from different energy sectors to work on ways to share clean energy technology.

Incidentally, Bush is not the only head of state thinking about global warming.  It is the hot topic for the G8 summit in Germany next week, which the president will attend.

Under his plan, each nation involved will set individual goals and outline programs that best reflects both their energy sources and needs. While Bush is not putting the plan in place as a means to eliminate greenhouse gasses, it is at least a beginning to dealing with the issue.

The goal is have the framework of the plan established within the next 19 months, just in time for when Kyoto expires in 2012.   The Kyoto Protocol, which required industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gases by 2012, was rejected by the U.S. because India and China were exempt.

While the issue of has remained the same, its name has ping ponged back and forth throughout the Bush administration.  Although "climate change" is still the preferred administration term, Bush will occasionally throw in the phrase "global warming."

President Bush does acknowledge that human activity contributes to global warming but he won't say it's the dominant cause. According to the president, there is no proof that it's caused by human activity.  In the mean time, the White House will continue to push for the development of alternative energy sources such as clean coal technology, hydrogen and ethanol power, nuclear power.

Bush believes that technology is the key to combating climate change and boasts that the United States is in the lead on this charge.

"The world is on the verge of great breakthroughs that will help us become better stewards of the environment," Bush says. "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."

He noted today that his administration has spent more than $12 billion in research on clean energy technology, including:
cleaner electricity production, including solar and wind energy
clean coal technologies
clean, safe nuclear power
ethanol production
plug-in hybrid and hydrogen-powered vehicles

The president says his goal at the G8 summit will be to encourage world leaders to increase their countries' investment in research and development.

May 31, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

User Comments

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: