Obama Urged To Set International Example
Denmark’s climate minister says US President Barack Obama needs to swiftly pass new laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to set an example for other developed nations.
Addressing the World Future Summit 2009 (WFES), Connie Hedegaard, Denmark’s Minister for Climate and Energy, said Obama must push global warming legislation to the forefront in order to address swift changes leading up to this year’s global climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
"We can postpone anything but we have been postponing things for many years. We must come from this era where we talk about what to do and instead come to the era where we actually do things. We must come to that now," Hedegaard told the UK’s Guardian.
"The deadline set “” 2009 “” is actually set also by the former Bush administration. It is not just Denmark or Europe or somebody who set that deadline. It is set also by the United States. We must deliver on that deadline and I can see no better alternative than having cap and trade."
Climate ministers from Europe and Canada are meeting with legislators in Washington this week to discuss new laws aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
On Tuesday, British and Danish ministers of climate and energy Ed Miliband and Connie Hedegaard voiced hopes for a deal could be concluded on reducing emissions at the UN conference in Copenhagen, according to AFP.
"President Obama’s commitment is a very significant and very welcome advance on previous US policy and will in that sense have a positive effect on others’ willingness to come forward," Miliband said.
"I think it’s right to say that in Europe there is a real … sense of new American leadership on these issues of climate change shown by President Obama and a very welcome sense of movement forward."
According to the Guardian, the European Union has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 late last year. “But it said it would increase the cut if other industrialized states get on board.”
Henry Waxman, chairman of the House energy and commerce committee, said US climate legislation could pass by December.
"What we need to do here in the US is complete a bill this year, passed into law, and I would hope we will do it before Copenhagen," said Waxman. "The US has to catch up and become a leader once again on these environmental issues."
On Monday, Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice on Monday voiced his hopes for a North American fuel standard among the auto industry.
"At this point in the United States, it would appear as though they are headed toward a 35 mile a gallon standard by 2020 and that would start to come into effect in the 2011 model year," Prentice told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp in Washington.
"We’ve essentially been prepared to go in that same direction … what we’re striving for is a North American standard because we know there’s only one North American automobile industry."
On Monday, Prentice met with Senator John Kerry. He told the Canadian Broadcasting Center that they discussed "the expansion of clean energy research and the deployment of clean energy technology."
"It is possible that we could have a North America-wide cap-and-trade system," Prentice said in an interview quoted by the Calgary Herald. "It’s more likely that we would have a system that operates in the United States and one in Canada that are parallel, if you will, with similar features that then allowed for cross-trading in the marketplace."
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