G8 summit: U.S. should take a stand against global warming

Philip Clapp, deputy managing director of the Pew Environment Group, Mark Helmke, senior professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Jennifer Morgan, director of the Climate and Energy Security Programme at E3G discussed the U.S.’s role in the upcoming G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan.

Morgan said that the U.S. needs to take the lead on global warming legislation.

Helmke said that Henry Paulson, Secretary of Treasury, is proposing a clean technology fund in which developed nations would help fund clean technology for developing countries through the World Bank.

Clapp said that a treaty on climate legislation could be reached in Copenhagen in 2009, but U.S. legislation might slow it down. Climate legislation might be proposed, debated, but not passed because 67 votes are hard to get, said Clapp.