Waitaminute... does this mean that global warming
is a reality? How can it be?
World energy revolution needed for climate: U.S.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said on Monday the world needs a revolution on energy
that transcends oil, gas and coal to prevent problems from climate
change.
"Ultimately, we must develop and bring to market
new energy technologies that transcend the current system of fossil
fuels, carbon emissions and economic activity. Put simply, the world
needs a technological revolution," Rice told delegates at a special
U.N. conference on climate change.
A landmark report by
the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this year said human
activities such as burning fossil fuels and forests are very likely
causing climate change that will lead to more deadly storms, heat
waves, droughts and floods.
The Bush administration's position on climate change has evolved
from skepticism to agreeing to work with other large emitters to forge
international goals to reduce greenhouse gases. Rice will host a
two-day meeting this week for the world's biggest greenhouse-gas
emitters.
President George W. Bush opposes mandatory caps on greenhouse emissions, preferring voluntary goals.
He
believes the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases unfairly exempted
rapidly developing countries and that ratifying it would have hurt the
economy of the United States, the world's largest emitter of
heat-trapping gases.
Addressing climate change requires an
integrated response that encompasses environmental stewardship, energy
security and economic growth and development, Rice said.
"How
we forge this integrated response has major consequences, not only for
our future, but also for our present and especially for the millions of
men, women and children in the developing world whose efforts to escape
poverty require broad and sustained economic growth and the energy to
fuel it," she said.
BEYOND KYOTO
Since
2001, the U.S. government has invested nearly $18 billion to develop
cleaner sources of energy, Rice said. Those include technologies that
run on hydrogen, permanently burying emissions of greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide, advanced nuclear energy, renewable fuels and greater energy
efficiency.
As the world looks to form a new
emissions-cutting agreement to succeed the first phase of Kyoto, which
expires in 2012, many countries say only mandatory caps on emissions
can effectively prod the private sector to cut emissions.
British
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said earlier on Monday the United
States and other large emitters must take on binding reduction targets
on greenhouse gases.
"It is inconceivable that dangerous
climate change can be avoided without this happening," he told
reporters at a meeting at the British mission.
Backers of
mandatory emission caps say they promote low- carbon technology by, in
effect, making polluters pay for emitting greenhouse gases like carbon
dioxide.
Rice did not mention greenhouse gas-cutting
goals, but said one of the biggest challenges is encouraging private
sector investments to bring about a low-carbon energy future while
ensuring continued economic growth.
