Bridges Trade BioRes Review • Volume 2 • Number 4 • December 2008
A change for climate change: President-elect Obama’s environmental plan
by Caitlin Zaino
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Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States in what many observers are calling one of the most important elections in the country’s history. Americans strongly backed Obama and his promises for ‘change’ in the 4 November election. And when it comes to environmental issues, such as climate change and energy, there is widespread expectation that change is indeed coming.
“Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all,” Obama told governors at a recent summit on climate change convened by California state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high; the consequences too serious,” said the President-elect.
The proposed Obama-Biden plan for the environment aims to discard many of the Bush administration’s policies and in its place, integrate major climate change and energy bills that will bring the US back into the international climate change arena. This shift can be seen most immediately in the President-elect’s decision to send his own representatives to the 1-12 December UN Climate Change Conference (COP-14) in Poznań, Poland.
Unlike his predecessor, President George W. Bush, Obama has committed to engage with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well - the main international forum dedicated to addressing the climate change. “Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change,” Obama said recently in a videotaped address.
He has also proposed the creation of a new forum compromised of the largest energy consuming nations from both the developed and developing world. This “Global Energy Forum” would focus exclusively on global energy and the environment and include all Group of 8 (G8) members plus Mexico, China, India, and South Africa. As set out by the President-elect, this Forum would complement - and ultimately merge with - negotiation processes already underway to develop a post-Kyoto framework.
The President-elect has also expressed a strong commitment to helping developing countries combat climate change, often emphasising the correlation between environmental destruction and loss of livelihoods. On tropical deforestation, for instance, Obama has promised to engage in activities that would not only slow the release of greenhouse gas emissions but also protect the livelihoods of local people and the abundance of biodiversity inextricably linked to forests. More generally, he has also proposed exporting climate-friendly technologies, clean coal technology, and advanced automobiles to developing countries to help them combat climate change.
And as part of his promise to ensure that the US is a leader on global climate change issues, Obama’s plan would not only thrust the US back into global initiatives, but overtake the standards and commitments of many European countries in some cases.
This is true, for instance, with the President-elect’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 using an economy-wide ‘cap-and-trade programme’, which would put a price on carbon emissions that reflects the costs of global warming. The administration also says it would introduce a mandate to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. If these ambitious objectives are achieved, the US would go from one of the world’s worst polluters to a leader on climate change, surpassing Europe’s commitment to reduce emissions by 60 percent by 2050.
“We cannot afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake,” President-elect Obama said during a rally in New Hampshire. “Global warming is not a someday problem, it is now. We are already breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of forest fires, the periods of drought. By 2050 famine could force more than 250 million from their homes.”
Comments such as these have been well-received by environmentalists, and it is clear that expectations for change are high. “Obama’s victory will give crucial climate negotiations a much greater chance of success - the United States must face up to its international responsibilities and show positive global leadership in low-carbon economic development,” says Andy Atkins, Executive Director of the London-based Friends of the Earth.
In addition to a strong stance on engaging the US in international climate talks, many environmentalists are praising the President-elect’s other proposed environmental policies as multifaceted and comprehensive. His energy plan includes provisions such as investing US$150 billion over the next ten years to help catalyse private efforts to build clean energy; establishing a national low carbon fuel standard; and weatherising one million homes annually. The policy also has incorporated ambitious objectives including putting one million hybrid cars on American roads by 2015 and ensuring that by 2012, 10 percent of domestic electricity comes from renewable resources.
Similar to Obama’s stance on climate change, his team has gone one step beyond setting ambitious domestic objectives: many of the proposed plans underline the necessary balance between the US’s need for a healthy, sustainable environment and economic growth. “A clean-energy economy can be the engine that drives us into the future in the same way the computer was the engine for economic growth over the last couple of decades,” said Obama shortly before the 4 November election.
To this end, Obama has promised to create five million new jobs over the next ten years that would drive the efforts to build a clean energy future. Regarding his goal of putting one million hybrid cars on the road by 2015, Obama has committed to ensuring that those vehicles are domestically produced by US-based car companies that will now receive federal support for designing fuel-efficient cars. When consumers purchase these green cars, or make their homes energy efficient, they too will receive federal assistance-in the form of tax credits.
“When I am President,” Obama said at the recent California governors’ summit, “Any company that’s willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that’s willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.”
Environmentalists around the world are welcoming the President-elect’s strong stance on the environment and energy, as well as his commitment to reverse Bush’s policies. “We are confident President-elect Obama will view these challenging times as an opportunity to reverse the ill-chosen policies of the past and chart a new course that will lead America and the world to a healthier, safer, more sustainable and prosperous future,” said Carter Roberts, CEO of WWF-US, in a press release circulated shortly after the 4 November election.
Yet, while environmentalists are optimistic about the future under Obama - some touting him as perhaps the nation’s greenest president before he has even taken office - trade observers are exercising more caution. Among some in the trade community, there is concern that future policies will be more protectionist than those seen under the Republicans.
However, in a memo addressing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), senior Obama advisor Austin Goolsbee wrote that “Obama is less about fundamentally changing the agreement and more in favour of strengthening/clarifying language on labour mobility and environment and trying to establish these as more ‘core’ principles of the agreement.” Another reason, it seems, for environmentalists to be smiling.
But sceptics are urging prudence to all those who have set high expectations for the President-elect on the environment and other policies. The global financial crisis could severely deter many well-intentioned plans. Furthermore, because Obama’s cabinet remains to be filled, all speculation on his priorities once in office remain just that - speculation.
In recent days there have been a few leaks, however, describing the possible short-list for candidates considered for the top environmental job in the Obama administration. Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center is among those reportedly being considered. So too is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance; Lisa Renstrom, former President of the Sierra Club; Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board; and Kathleen McGinty, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Nevertheless, despite conjecture on the details of Obama’s environmental policy or the makeup of his administration, many supporters appear to be content for now with the undeniable hope inspired by the future President’s campaign. “This is not the future I want for my daughters. It’s not the future any of us want for our children. And if we act now and we act boldly, it doesn’t have to be,” the President-elect said during a pre-election rally.
Just how boldly he will act remains to be seen.
Caitlin Zaino is Acting Editor of ICTSD publication Trade Negotiations Insights
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