Bush Seeks New Image on Global Warming

The Washington Post,  September 28, 2007

President Bush assured the rest of the world today that he takes climate change seriously and vowed that the United States "will do its part" in crafting "a new international approach" to reduce the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. However, he proposed no new initiatives to do so.

Addressing a Washington conference of major economic powers, Bush said "the moment is now" to find a broad consensus on how to confront the challenge of climate change. "I want to get the job done," he told hundreds of envoys, lobbyists and activists. "We have identified a problem; let's go solve it together."

His much-anticipated address, though, was more a defense of his own record on the issue than a concrete roadmap for future action.

Bush said he wants to reach agreement with other heads of state by next summer on a long-term goal for reducing emissions, an accord that would allow different nations to decide how to meet targets. He touted technology as the ultimate solution, ignoring calls for mandatory limits on emissions.

Among the measures he advocated were proposals he has been promoting for years, including cleaner coal production; more nuclear, solar and wind power; additional ethanol as a substitute for gasoline; and increased vehicle fuel efficiency standards. He called energy security and climate change "two of the great challenges of our time" and said that "the United States takes these challenges seriously."

"For many years, those who worried about climate change and those who worried about energy security were on opposite ends of the debate," Bush said. "It was said that we faced a choice between protecting the environment and producing enough energy. Today we know better. These challenges share a common solution:technology."

The speech disappointed critics who had hoped Bush would offer more tangible solutions.

Dan Weiss, an analyst at the liberal Center for American Progress, said Bush "once again told the world that it should hurry up and wait for the United States to take binding tangible steps to cut its global warming pollution. Instead, he proposed a grab bag of small programs and reliance on waving a magic technology wand. These measures won't make a dent in global warming."

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of a House global warming committee, said Bush's only commitment to the environment is to "recycling rhetoric." Markey, who attended the speech, added: "For these countries meeting with the president, this must have felt like attending a prayer session led by an atheist."

John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA, said Bush's speech underscores "his do-nothing approach to global warming," which he compared to that of the oil industry. "The American people understand that his position is a lie," Passacantando said, "and people across the world need to know that the American people no longer believe their president on global warming."

The conference represented the most serious effort Bush has made to play an international leadership role on climate change. As a candidate for president in 2000, he expressed doubt that human activity was responsible for global warming. Shortly after taking office, he renounced the Kyoto treaty intended to fight it and broke a campaign promise to impose mandatory reductions in power plant carbon dioxide emissions. Since then, his views and policies have evolved to the point where now, nearly seven years into his presidency, he has decided to make a major push to find an international agreement to replace Kyoto when it expires in 2012.

The White House-sponsored conference yesterday and today gathered representatives of 15 other major polluting states, including the major European powers, Japan, Russia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa. Especially important was the participation of China and India, the world's most populous nations. They were exempt from Kyoto because they are still developing, but they produce increasing amounts of greenhouse gases.

Because Bush still resists the sort of mandatory caps envisioned by Kyoto, many environmentalists suspect the president's effort is more for show and could even be an attempt to undermine an ongoing U.N.-sponsored process to replace Kyoto starting with a conference in Indonesia in December. Bush tried to dispel such suspicions today by saying his initiative falls under that U.N. process.

If nothing else, the president's language represented a stark change from seven years ago.

"Our understanding of climate change has come a long way," he said, citing a report that concluded that rising global temperatures are "caused largely by human activities." His embrace of a mutual goal for emissions reductions also reflected an evolution from his early days as president.

"By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem," he said. "And by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it."

Bush said he would establish a new international clean technology fund along with other nations to help finance clean energy projects in the developing world. He said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson would begin discussions with foreign leaders over the next several months to organize it.

And yet mostly he spent his talk promoting efforts he has already made, boasting that he has invested $18 billion since taking office to research, develop and promote clean and efficient energy technology. He mentioned his proposal in last January's State of the Union address to expand alternative fuels and increase fuel efficiency to reduce the forecast use of gasoline in the United States by 20 percent in 10 years. He noted initiatives to build the country's first new nuclear power plants since the 1970s, expand cleaner coal technology and develop hydrogen-powered vehicles that emit water instead of exhaust fumes.

Without mentioning the mandatory emissions caps that other countries want the United States to impose, he said his way is more effective and would not harm the economy.

"This problem ain't going to be solved overnight," he said. "Yet years from now, our children are going to look back at the choices we make today at this deciding moment. It will be a moment when we choose to expand prosperity instead of accepting stagnation. It'll be a moment when we turn the tide against greenhouse gas emissions instead of allowing the problem to grow."