Obama Opens a $15billion pa `New Chapter’ for U.S. on Climate Change SEE VIDEO

President-elect Barack Obama said he will open a “new chapter” for the U.S. on climate change by leading global cooperation on the issue in a way that will also help pull the country out of an economic crisis.

SEE 5min VIDEO at: ObamaClimateChangeVideo

Obama, making his first in-depth remarks on the topic since winning the Nov. 4 election, reiterated a campaign promise to spend $15 billion a year to help private industry develop clean energy technology and to institute a cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050.

“This investment will not only help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, making the United States more secure,” Obama said in a taped message to the Bi-Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, California. “It will also help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis.”

Speaking to international officials who were also attending the conference, Obama, 47, called the discussions at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland next month “vital to the planet.” The president-elect said that, while he won’t attend the meeting, he will be briefed by members of Congress who will be there as observers.

Negotiators meeting in Poznan, Poland Dec. 1-12 are aiming for an agreement to trade technology and financial support from industrialized countries for measurable action to curb emissions from developing countries. President George W. Bush has opposed any accord imposing mandatory emissions caps on gases blamed for global warming that doesn’t demand the same from emerging economies such as China and India.

Obama praised U.S. governors who have taken steps on their own to combat climate change, citing Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Charlie Crist of Florida and Democrats Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Jim Doyle of Wisconsin and Rod Blagojevich of his home state of Illinois. In doing so, he took an indirect swipe at the Bush administration.

“Too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind of leadership; that will change when I take office,” Obama said. “Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.”

His remarks drew a standing ovation from the audience. Schwarzenegger, speaking afterward, said the U.S. must take the lead on addressing climate change.

“We have been the biggest polluter in the world and it’s about time we as a country recognize that,” Schwarzenegger said.

The emissions reductions that Obama laid out mirror those California approved in 2006. The most populous U.S. state was the first in the nation to cap greenhouse gases, vowing to cut the amount spewed into the atmosphere to 1990 levels by 2020.

The United Nations’ top climate official, Yvo de Boer, said earlier this month that Obama’s election may give renewed impetus to global talks on curbing heat-trapping pollution.

“Obama is committed to the issue, is committed to developing a strong domestic policy, is committed to engaging in the international negotiations,” de Boer, an official with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in an interview in Beijing. “Leadership from the U.S. on this issue can have a huge impact on the dynamics of these negotiations.”

Obama said he looks forward to working with the international community to “confront this challenge once and for all.”

“Any nation that’s willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America,” Obama said.

Valere Tjolle

Source: Bloomberg.com & eco-tube.com