|
Kerry Addresses Global Climate Change Conference
WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. John Kerry addressed the GLOBE International Washington Legislators Forum on Climate Change today, highlighting the urgent need for action to reverse global warming. Kerry, who is a former president of GLOBE U.S., called for a sustained series of actions not just here in Washington but around the world to reverse the destructive impact of climate change. He said that world leaders “can no longer sit around and talk while the earth’s temperature increases.”
Below are Senator Kerry’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:
I want to start today by thanking GLOBE International for providing this important forum for legislators, business leaders and others to discuss global climate change.
I understand much of the discussion – for obvious reasons – has been focused on the United States’ role in meeting this challenge. And as someone who has been working on climate change in the US Congress for more than a decade, I’m both frustrated by our lack of progress to date and encouraged by our resolve to finally get something done.
We all know that for far too long, in the Senate and elsewhere, this issue has been neglected or pushed aside as unsolvable, incomprehensible, or simply someone else’s problem. But the stakes could not be higher, and the reality could hardly be more stark.
The issue of global warming has finally reached critical mass in America’s public discussion. Suddenly, on a variety of fronts, it’s moving toward its rightful place: front and center in the dialogue about our environment, our security and our economy.
From the State of the Union to states across this country, from the Academy Awards to the National Academy of Sciences, people are finally waking up to see that we’re in the middle of a crisis– and we have ten years to put our country on a different path before its too late.
It was 1987—1987!— when we first started talking about climate change. The Commerce Committee, under Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, held the first congressional hearings that year. And I’ve been working on this issue ever since. In June 1992 I was part of a Senate delegation to the Earth Summit in Rio where I met with leaders from across the globe and discussed various ways to tackle this problem.
At the time, there was a ray of international hope as well as a promise. The hope stemmed from a sense of relief that we had recognized the problem of climate change in time, and the promise was that as members of the global community we would commit ourselves to efforts to address it. The hope was translated into the Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty we adopted after the summit outlining how participating countries could stabilize greenhouse gas. The Senate approved it unanimously, and we all thought we were on the way to an unprecedented bipartisan implementation of visionary, responsible policy. That was fifteen years ago.
Unfortunately, from a policy perspective little progress has been made. Instead we entered a period of procrastination and evasion. And more recently, under President Bush, of stonewalling unilateralism, of energy policy made by secret CEO task forces and trumped-up industry funded “studies” that challenge the ever-growing scientific consensus that the threat is real.
Recently, however, the American people have begun demanding better, and politicians are actually listening. States are taking action--- California passed a landmark bill that establishes a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve reductions of greenhouse gases. And my home state of Massachusetts—under the leadership of Deval Patrick—has rejoined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, now an eight state effort to reduce global warming pollution from power plants. Across the nation, 376 mayors from 50 states have signed onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, an initiative to advance the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. And even President Bush finally saw fit to mention “the serious challenge of global climate change” in his State of the Union address.
What’s driving this sea change? On nearly a weekly basis, we see mounting scientific evidence highlighting the need to act. Just last week we read a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—written by more than 600 scientists, reviewed by another 600 experts, and edited by officials from 154 governments – which raised the alarm bell. The fact of global warming is ``unequivocal.'' The certainty of the human role is now somewhere over 90 percent. Which is about as certain as scientists ever get.
Everyone in this room knows the basic facts:
· At both poles and nearly all points in between, the temperature of the Earth’s surface is heating up, and at a frightening and potentially catastrophic rate.
· Global temperatures have increased an average of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit during the twenty-first century.
· The Earth is hotter today than at any time in at least the past thousand years.
Science tells us that this heating is the result of human activity.
As much as science tells us about the current state of the planet, science also helps us identify the solutions. In order to minimize large scale adverse impacts to humans and the environment, we must adopt a long-term objective of CO2 concentration of about 450 parts per million. Senator Snowe and I have introduced bipartisan legislation to achieve that goal. Our bill establishes an economy-wide cap and trade program to reverse carbon dioxide emissions starting in 2010—and mandates a 65% cut in emissions by 2050. And, knowing that we will need help transitioning to a green economy, our plan uses tax incentives and increased research funding to protect affected workers, communities, companies, and consumers from energy cost shocks.
In doing so, the United States will be positioned as the world leader in reducing the risk of potentially devastating and wide ranging impacts associated with climate change and in developing and implementing low carbon energy technologies and strategies.
Key features of our bill:
· Vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and light-duty vehicles as well as medium and heavy-duty vehicles.
· Research and development program on global climate change, ocean acidification and abrupt climate change research.
· A renewable portfolio standard requiring a minimum annual percentage of 20 percent renewable electricity by 2020.
· Contains a standard that 50% of fueling stations contain at least one E85 pump by 2016.
· Tax incentives for advanced technology vehicles by both providing consumers with additional advanced technology vehicle purchase incentives and manufacturers with credits for building advanced technology vehicles.
This is one of the great challenges of our times. Failing to even acknowledge it publicly for years, the Bush administration of course failed to see that, as with any kind of change, there is an opportunity. As a result of this myopia, the United States is ceding its leadership in developing the new technologies that will undoubtedly be a significant economic driver for America’s 21st century economy. Other countries are happily filling the void. By abandoning the playing field, we are disadvantaging ourselves economically. In stark contrast to some of our government leaders, many prominent business leaders— the CEOs of Dow, Alcoa, and BP among them—have long accepted the facts about climate change and have pursued visionary policies to match the nightmarish threat of catastrophic climate change.
Rather than arguing against the supposed economic turmoil that will befall our nation, we should be embracing what these business leaders have accepted long ago: There is huge economic potential in the response. The new technologies required to reduce emissions, and the means of remedying the harm we have already done, should be viewed as a key part of our economic future. Every schoolchild learns that the history of this nation has been written through a spirit of innovation—from the Wright Brothers to Henry Ford to Bill Gates, from the Model T to the iPod. I ask you this: why would we stop now?
This is the new frontier for America’s technological ingenuity. If we rise to meet this challenge, we stand to gain whole industries of new, high-value jobs, leading to better quality of life, better technical assistance to the world, and a competitive edge in a new marketplace. Some businesses across the globe and here in the United States are already proving that there are enormous profits to be made in developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And just as it makes economic sense for individual businesses, tackling this problem makes economic sense at the government level as well.
Heads turned last fall when Sir Nicholas Stern, a distinguished development economist and head of the Government Economics Service for the United Kingdom, issued a report on the economics of climate change. It was the first comprehensive, serious cost-benefit analysis of such change. His findings were dramatic and unequivocal. His fundamental conclusion said this: “This Review has assessed a wide range of evidence on the impacts of climate change and on the economic costs, and has used a number of different techniques to assess costs and risks. From all of these perspectives, the evidence gathered by the Review leads to a simple conclusion: the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.”
So prompt and strong action is clearly warranted.
Stern, like many of the world’s leading scientists, identifies the next ten years as our last best chance to tackle global warming and to avoid the scenario in which our children and grandchildren are left with a global catastrophe. That is not the future we want them to inherit.
It is time to stop debating fiction writers, oil executives, and flat-Earth politicians and address, in a very real way, what can rightly be called a mortal threat to America.
There are clear principles that should drive and shape our action.
The challenge will become more difficult the longer we wait. The problem and the solution are global, but it is better that we begin locally rather than not at all. Sound domestic policies will contribute to the strength of our economy, our security, and the environment. And at least for now, Washington is far behind the American people when it comes to understanding and meeting this challenge.
Increasingly, homegrown efforts by concerned that citizens are outpacing political “leaders”—many of whom have done precious little leadership on this issue-- in forcing change. From school kids engaging in local activities to spread awareness steps their fellow students can take; to dedicated professionals in government agencies like Jim Hansen; to creative business leaders like Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric; to powerful activists like Laurie David, who produced Al Gore’s documentary and has founded the StopGlobalWarming.org Web site; to longtime, dedicated environmental leaders -- there is a growing awareness that the clock is ticking and that showing responsibility is imperative.
As Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.” As imposing as the facts of climate change may be, there are countless practical actions that each of us can take to make a difference. The single most significant thing all Americans can do is elect leaders who understand that there is only one course of action that will truly solve this problem: an innovative and strategic national energy policy.
###
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
