President Bush calls for focused global warming research

By the OGJ Online Staff

WASHINGTON DC, June 11 -- President George W. Bush Monday called for federal agencies to set priorities for additional investments in climate change research, saying he is establishing the US Climate Change Research Initiative.

Bush's comments came in a speech before he left for Europe to meet with leaders there about climate change policy. Administration advisors have been asked to consider approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but Bush gave no specifics.

A cabinet-level working group has met regularly for 10 weeks to review the recent science behind global warming. The group asked the National Academy of Sciences to specify the areas of uncertainty on climate change and it reported last week that it could not be determined how much use of fossil fuel and other human activity were to blame (OGJ Online, June 7, 2001).

Bush said, "The academy's report tells us that we do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming. We do not know how much our climate could, or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur, or even how some of our actions could impact it," Bush said.

The two ways of stabilizing concentration of greenhouse gases are to avoid emission or else to try and capture the emissions.

"There are problems with both approaches. We're making great progress through technology, but have not yet developed cost-effective ways to capture carbon emissions at their source; although there is some promising work that is being done," Bush said.

The US is the world's largest emitter of manmade greenhouse gases, accounting for almost 20% of global man-made greenhouse emissions. The US accounts for about one-quarter of the world's economic output.

"Kyoto is, in many ways, unrealistic. Many countries cannot meet their Kyoto targets. The targets themselves were arbitrary and not based upon science. For America, complying with those mandates would have a negative economic impact, with layoffs of workers and price increases for consumers. And when you evaluate all these flaws, most reasonable people will understand that it's not sound public policy," Bush said.

The US is not abdicating its responsibility, he said, adding, "My administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change."

"I'm directing my Secretary of Commerce, working with other agencies, to set priorities for additional investments in climate change research, review such investments, and to improve coordination amongst federal agencies. We will fully fund high-priority areas for climate change science over the next five years," Bush said.

He proposed a joint venture with the European Union, Japan and other nations to develop state-of-the-art climate modeling to better understand the causes and impacts of climate change.

"We're creating the National Climate Change Technology Initiative to strengthen research at universities and national labs, to enhance partnerships in applied research, to develop improved technology for measuring and monitoring gross and net greenhouse gas emissions, and to fund demonstration projects for cutting-edge technologies, such as bioreactors and fuel cells," he said.

The US will work with the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research and other institutions to better understand regional impacts of climate change.