NPR: FactWatch: Climate Change

FactWatch: Climate Change

From the speech:
"Let us create a new international clean technology fund, which will help developing nations like India and China make greater use of clean energy sources. And let us complete an international agreement that has the potential to slow, stop and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases. This agreement will be effective only if it includes commitments by every major economy and gives none a free ride."

Analysis:
The Bush administration has been discussing such a fund with Japan and the United Kingdom, to be used to help developing countries enhance energy efficiency and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Such a proposal, pegged at $2 billion, could face tough going in Congress, however, from members who insist that the larger "developing" countries be required to reduce their own emissions as part of any international climate agreement. The administration is sympathetic to that view, signaling so in the address tonight with the words that "This agreement will be effective only if it includes commitments by every major economy and gives none a free ride." Even if that much money can be raised, it amounts to 1 percent of what the United Nations has estimated to be necessary to develop the technology worldwide to hold warming to acceptable levels.

As for an international agreement to slow and reverse growth of greenhouse gases, the president has never supported the Kyoto Protocol, the only international agreement so far with specific limits and mechanisms for reducing warming — one that every industrialized nation except the U.S. has signed onto. The Bush administration began a parallel process last year, inviting major economies, including China and India, to Washington to talk about encouraging technological innovation to reduce warming. This "major economies" initiative is viewed by the rest of the industrialized world as a U.S. alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, and most are very skeptical. The second major economies meeting is scheduled for later this week in Hawaii, but so far the White House has indicated there won't be specific proposals laid on the table. Moreover, the target for any agreement to emerge from it is 2009 — after Bush leaves office.

- Christopher Joyce

9:28 PM ET | 01-28-2008 | permalink

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