As lawmakers of more than 20 countries meet in Washington to discuss climate change and energy security, the US Congress is abuzz with legislative proposals to reduce American greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Legislators Forum on Climate Change and Energy Security will allow European policymakers to sample the renewed interest in climate change on Capitol Hill.
In the past two months, several legislative proposals on fighting climate change have been introduced in the House and the Senate and the media have rediscovered the climate-change issue as a result of Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ campaign. No candidate for the next US Presidency elections in 2008 can avoid making a radical proposal to combat global warming. Next to the Iraq war, climate change is likely to be the number one issue in the campaigns for the White House.
The most radical proposal has been introduced by Independent Bernie Sanders and Democrat Barbara Boxer. Their Global Warming Pollution Act demands an 80% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2050 compared to 1990 levels and focuses very much on renewable energy.
Probably the most well-known in Europe is the proposal by Senators McCain (Republican) and Lieberman (Independent), recently supported by Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama. Their Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 also requires heavy reductions (one third reduction of emissions by 2050 compared to 2000) and the introduction of a market-based cap-and-trade system.
But not only Democrat politicians have jumped on the climate-change bandwaggon. Stark warnings that the US should do more to combat global warming have also come from big business. On 22 January, ten major US corporations joined with four environmental groups to establish the US Climate Change Action Partnership (USCAP). This new coalition urged the American government to propose strong legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions (see EURACTIV 23 Jan 2007).