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September 28, 2007

Update: Bush sets goal to fight global warming / Video

Representatives from across the world are meeting in Washington, D.C., today to discuss climate change and strategies that major countries, and major companies, can use to develop cleaner technologies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In a speech to the group this morning, President Bush called on the world's worst polluters to come together to set a goal for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the climate to heat up. He didn't exempt his own country from the list.

"By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem, and by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it," Bush said in a speech that capped two days of talks at a White House-sponsored climate change conference. "We share a common responsibility: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping our economies growing."

He said each nation should establish for itself what methods it will use to rein in the pollution problem without stunting economic growth.

The gathering drew representatives from 16 nations, including big producers from the developing world like China and India as well as the European Union and United Nations. Bush's emphasis is on using green technologies and other voluntary efforts to tackle global warming. The president said the reduction goal should be finalized by next summer, along with ways to measure progress toward it.

Watch a video report of Bush's speech.

Closer to home, politicians are still expressing disappointment at some of the administration’s policies toward climate change. According to documents made public by a congressional committee, the Bush administration is working to create opposition to new state rules designed to reduce carbon emissions from cars.

The potential effects of climate change in New England were outlined in a report earlier this summer by the Cambridge-based Union of Concerned Scientists, self described as “the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world.”

The report warns of the decline of lobster stocks, increased drought, increased coastal flooding and conditions favorable for the spread of vector borne diseases.

Read the report here .

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Peter B. Lord and the Associated Press

Posted by Brandie Jefferson  at 11:35 AM | Permalink

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