On May 31st, President Bush invited 15 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters to negotiate a new framework for addressing global climate change, with the aim of securing a new global emissions reduction goal by the end of 2008.
Environmental Defense welcomes the President's recognition that international efforts are necessary to address global warming, and his commitment to developing a long-term emissions reduction goal and mid-term national targets is encouraging.
The requisite first step for the President to have credibility in convening other nations will be the enactment of bipartisan legislation, now under consideration in Congress, to reduce emissions through a mandatory cap and trade system. A growing number of leading U.S. companies have called for tough emissions reduction targets with trading, and the administration should set the example for the world by working constructively with U.S. lawmakers to pass a cap and trade bill.
Cap and trade will drive the investment necessary to fulfill the president's goal of bringing clean energy technologies to market. By setting an enforceable limit on greenhouse gas emissions and letting companies find and fund the best ways to reduce them, cap and trade will unleash a wave of private-sector capital far greater than government subsidies.
The President's willingness to convene a summit is a welcome signal — if he makes clear that the summit's goal is to support the UN climate treaty's objective of stabilizing the atmosphere to avert dangerous climate change. If that is the goal, it will translate into greater willingness on his part to work in Heiligendamm with the G8 and key developing country leaders that Chancellor Angela Merkel has engaged.
The bottom line test of the President's promise will be whether he and his administration work with Congress to pass strong cap-and-trade legislation, and then build on that in outreach to other nations.
"A new willingness to engage in international negotiations is a positive step, but the administration needs to turn words into action," said Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp. "The president will lose the opportunity to lead internationally if he fails to show leadership at home."
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