Speech at Governors Climate Summit
Remarks as Delivered Nov.19:
Let me begin by thanking the bipartisan group of U.S. governors who convened this meeting.
Few challenges facing America – and the world – are more urgent than
combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts
are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We’ve seen
record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger
with each passing hurricane season.
Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, if left
unaddressed, will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our
national security.
I know many of you are working to confront this challenge. In
particular, I want to commend Governor Sebelius, Governor Doyle,
Governor Crist, Governor Blagojevich and your host, Governor
Schwarzenegger – all of you have shown true leadership in the fight to
combat global warming. And we’ve also seen a number of businesses doing
their part by investing in clean energy technologies.
But too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind of
leadership. That will change when I take office. My presidency will
mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will
strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.
That will start with a federal cap and trade system. We will
establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce
emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional
80% by 2050.
Further, we will invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private
sector efforts to build a clean energy future. We will invest in solar
power, wind power, and next-generation biofuels. We will tap nuclear
power, while making sure it’s safe. And we will develop clean coal
technologies.
This investment will not only help us reduce our dependence on
foreign oil, making the United States more secure. And it will not only
help us bring about a clean energy future, saving our planet. It will
also help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this
economic crisis by generating five million new green jobs that pay well
and can’t be outsourced.
But the truth is, the United States cannot meet this challenge
alone. Solving this problem will require all of us working together. I
understand that your meeting is being attended by government officials
from over a dozen countries, including the UK, Canada and Mexico,
Brazil and Chile, Poland and Australia, India and Indonesia. And I look
forward to working with all nations to meet this challenge in the
coming years.
Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the
world who will gather at Poland next month: your work is vital to the
planet. While I won’t be President at the time of your meeting and
while the United States has only one President at a time, I’ve asked
Members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to
report back to me on what they learn there.
And 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.
Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay
is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The
stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious. Stopping climate
change won’t be easy. It won’t happen overnight. But I promise you
this: When I am President, any governor who’s willing to promote clean
energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that’s
willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And
any nation that’s willing to join the cause of combating climate change
will have an ally in the United States of America. Thank you.
video: http://www.change.gov/NewChapterOnClimateChange
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