Karen Harbert, President and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, tells the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing Tuesday that efforts to reduce global tariffs and non-tariff barriers on clean energy goods and services is essential in ensuring that alternative energy technologies can penetrate the global marketplace. (0:25)
Karen Harbert, President and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, tells the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing Tuesday that a climate agreement that focuses on technology will offer a path that both developed and developing countries can utilize. (0:24)
By Ravi Bhatia – Talk Radio News Service
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has teamed up with Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to find common ground on creating bipartisan climate change legislation, with hopes of making progress before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month.
“The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead,” Graham said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Those countries who follow will pay a price. those countries who lead in creating a new green economy for the world will make money.”
Graham and Kerry wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times published on Oct. 11 that highlighted some of the goals of the legislation, which include acknowledging that climate change is real, investing in wind, solar and nuclear energy and breaking U.S dependence on foreign oil.
Republicans boycotted the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee markups of the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act on Tuesday and Wednesday in an attempt to urge the committee to submit the legislation to the Environmental Protection Agency for economic analysis. Ranking member Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) was the lone Republican to attend Wednesday’s meeting, although he departed after only 15 minutes.
“I do believe that all of the cars we have on the road and the trucks and the energy we use that produces carbon daily is not a good thing for the planet,” Graham said. “But if environmental policy is not good business policy you’ll never get 60 votes.”
According to Lieberman, the stakes are “too high” to wait on drafting climate change legislation.
“We will be held accountable by history unless we make every effort to find common ground,” he said.
By Leah Valencia – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
In Barcelona, policy makers are awaiting a commitment from the U.S. to cut greenhouse gas emissions during preliminary agreements being made ahead of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen next month.
Nick Mabey, CEO of E3G, a nonprofit think tank that promotes green solutions, said Monday that key players have began to advocate ambitious commitments, noting that China and India have discussed lofty international abatement commitments. Mabey said that all that remains is a commitment from the U.S to reduce emissions.
“With the major countries moving on finance and on commitment, this really sets up for the EU-US summit…to see the U.S. come forward and make a very positive statement about its intentions,” Mabey said during a conference call hosted by the U.S. Climate Action Network.
The U.S., which is the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world – China is the largest – has yet to commit to a goal to reduce emissions by 2020. This has made it difficult to gain commitments from other developing countries. In contrast the European Union has vowed to cut 1990-level emissions by 20 percent in the next decade.
“The principle for supporting developing countries is committing to finance, as Europe has, and a strong agreement that we can build on in the future,” Mabey said. “This is really an important time where U.S. leadership has to come to the full.”
The current preliminary discussions taking place in Barcelona represent the final negotiating sessions before the United Nations meets in Copenhagen on Dec. 6 for the EU-US climate conference. There, 190 nations will draft an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) took issue with President Barack Obama’s decision to travel to Copenhagen to rally support for bringing the Olympics to Chicago.
“While the President is in Copenhagen tomorrow, the American people are going to wake up and find out that hundreds and thousands of more Americans have lost their jobs,” said Boehner.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said that China can set an example for other developing countries to follow in terms of combatting climate change. (1:08)
Travis Martinez. University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service
Sen John Kerry (D-Mass.), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called upon the U.S. and China to escalate their efforts to prevent climate change Tuesday.
“These conversations [about climate change] between the U.S. and China are at a critical stage… they need to speed up. They need to focus,” Kerry said during a conference call.
“The U.S. needs to lead, we [the U.S.] have an obligation to lead”, Kerry added. However, Kerry stressed that this did not release China from responsibility.
“China needs to understand along with the developing world that we [the U.S.] cannot enter into a global treaty without meaningful commitments”, Kerry said.
China and the U.S. lead the world in CO2 emissions.
Efforts are currently being made to secure new climate change agreements among the international community before 192 countries converge in Copenhagen this December.
“Twenty years from now, folks, I do not want to be debating who lost Earth,” Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) stated Wednesday during an address at the National Press Club in Washington.
“One hundred and ninety-two nations will gather this December in Copenhagen to hammer out a new global climate treaty, but two [the U.S. and China] have the capacity to set the tone and define what is possible,” he said, citing that the two nations together produce 40 percent of all carbon emissions in the world.
Kerry said there are grave misunderstandings between the American and Chinese populations that place a souring effect on the relationship between the two countries. He argued that America underestimates China’s willingness to fight climate change, and that China unreasonably fears that the U.S. is attempting to smother China’s economic rise.
Actually, Kerry said, China has already taken much more initiative towards renewable energy than most Americans realize. He reported that China is second in the world only to Germany in renewable energy investment; China currently invests $12.5 million per hour.
“China needs to understand that we will not enter into a global treaty … without a meaningful commitment from China to be part of the solution,” said Kerry. He argued that the U.S. must persuade China to act quickly and decisively and that to do so is in their best interests.
Kerry said that the United States’ perception of China is far different from how China sees itself. America sees China as the leading producer of carbon emissions today, and a burgeoning economic powerhouse. However, he said, China sees itself as a country with less cumulative emissions historically than the U.S. and with 500 million citizens living on less than two dollars per day.
“Our climate diplomacy depends on building a framework that is flexible enough to accommodate individual countries’ wants and needs, but firm enough to bring all of us on board and hold all nations accountable,” said Kerry.
