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| Obama's climate speech: 'It is time for Congress to share his ambition' | Obama's climate speech: 'It is time for Congress to share his ambition' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science | Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science |
| President Obama's speech was very clear on the scale of dangers posed by climate change and the responsibility of the United States and other countries to act. Recent experience shows that the United States can cut emissions and grow. The United States, with its technology and entrepreneurship, can lead this new low-carbon growth story. The president was right to place great emphasis on standards for cleaner power plants, accelerating renewables, energy efficiency standards in buildings, vehicles and appliances, and the importance of leadership by the public sector in implementing these standards. The president recognised as well the role of natural gas, but also saw it in a medium-term role and as bridge to cleaner technologies. There are will be new jobs in the United States in cleaner and more efficient technologies, and investment opportunities round the world. The low-carbon economy can create enormous potential growth for the private sector in the United States, and around the world. I am glad that President Obama emphasised the need for free trade in clean goods and services, and acknowledged the benefits of collaborating with China on phasing out HFCs. China and the United States can and should both go further in tackling climate change, for instance by increasing energy efficiency, and phasing out coal. China has been moving very strongly on this issue both in its current five-year plan and in preparations for the 13th five-year plan. There would be tremendous benefits if China and the United States could together show real international leadership on this issue. And it is time for Europe to stop hesitating and once again position itself at the forefront of global efforts. I welcome the president's emphasis on help for developing countries to avoid the mistakes made by the rich industrial countries, including by sharing technologies and trying to find alternatives to coal. He is right to place an emphasis on finding ways to work together internationally and to reach an agreement between all countries at the United Nations climate change summit in Paris in 2015. I am glad that the president chose to close his speech with an appeal to young people to make the case and to press politicians for action. Our generation will be judged by the inheritance we leave. | President Obama's speech was very clear on the scale of dangers posed by climate change and the responsibility of the United States and other countries to act. Recent experience shows that the United States can cut emissions and grow. The United States, with its technology and entrepreneurship, can lead this new low-carbon growth story. The president was right to place great emphasis on standards for cleaner power plants, accelerating renewables, energy efficiency standards in buildings, vehicles and appliances, and the importance of leadership by the public sector in implementing these standards. The president recognised as well the role of natural gas, but also saw it in a medium-term role and as bridge to cleaner technologies. There are will be new jobs in the United States in cleaner and more efficient technologies, and investment opportunities round the world. The low-carbon economy can create enormous potential growth for the private sector in the United States, and around the world. I am glad that President Obama emphasised the need for free trade in clean goods and services, and acknowledged the benefits of collaborating with China on phasing out HFCs. China and the United States can and should both go further in tackling climate change, for instance by increasing energy efficiency, and phasing out coal. China has been moving very strongly on this issue both in its current five-year plan and in preparations for the 13th five-year plan. There would be tremendous benefits if China and the United States could together show real international leadership on this issue. And it is time for Europe to stop hesitating and once again position itself at the forefront of global efforts. I welcome the president's emphasis on help for developing countries to avoid the mistakes made by the rich industrial countries, including by sharing technologies and trying to find alternatives to coal. He is right to place an emphasis on finding ways to work together internationally and to reach an agreement between all countries at the United Nations climate change summit in Paris in 2015. I am glad that the president chose to close his speech with an appeal to young people to make the case and to press politicians for action. Our generation will be judged by the inheritance we leave. |
| Jessy Tolkan, board member, 350.org and former executive director of Energy Action Coalition. | Jessy Tolkan, board member, 350.org and former executive director of Energy Action Coalition. |
| I've waited four years and 158 days to hear the president give this kind of speech on climate change. This is the kind of leadership my generation expected when we first elected, and then re-elected President Obama to office. This speech has been a long- and hard-time coming, but the president's plan outlines meaningful action that begins to meet our global and moral responsibility to address climate change. It's refreshing to see this second-term president finally step into his administrative powers and take the reigns in this fight. | I've waited four years and 158 days to hear the president give this kind of speech on climate change. This is the kind of leadership my generation expected when we first elected, and then re-elected President Obama to office. This speech has been a long- and hard-time coming, but the president's plan outlines meaningful action that begins to meet our global and moral responsibility to address climate change. It's refreshing to see this second-term president finally step into his administrative powers and take the reigns in this fight. |
| Today's announcement should be credited to the tens of thousands of Americans who have relentlessly applied pressure to this administration to keep this critical issue alive. It's an indication that our voices can penetrate through the powerful of influence of dirty energy. The fight is long from over. The president threaded a needle in proclaiming that the Keystone pipeline should not be approved if it increases carbon pollution. We know the pipeline produces undoable harm to our environment. No decision, other than denying Keystone will be an acceptable follow-up to this speech. | Today's announcement should be credited to the tens of thousands of Americans who have relentlessly applied pressure to this administration to keep this critical issue alive. It's an indication that our voices can penetrate through the powerful of influence of dirty energy. The fight is long from over. The president threaded a needle in proclaiming that the Keystone pipeline should not be approved if it increases carbon pollution. We know the pipeline produces undoable harm to our environment. No decision, other than denying Keystone will be an acceptable follow-up to this speech. |
| As the president spoke today, 500+ young climate leaders from more than 100 countries are convened in Instanbul, Turkey, for Global Power Shift. This generation is counting on this speech marking the beginning of a new era in the fight to stop climate change. | As the president spoke today, 500+ young climate leaders from more than 100 countries are convened in Instanbul, Turkey, for Global Power Shift. This generation is counting on this speech marking the beginning of a new era in the fight to stop climate change. |
| Van Jones, co-founder Rebuild the Dream and former White House green jobs advisor | Van Jones, co-founder Rebuild the Dream and former White House green jobs advisor |
| I think there was an important development on the Keystone pipeline, and I think it's worth spending some time reading the tea leaves on that. I think the president gave a very encouraging wink and a nod to environmentalists on this issue. I think that if I were the head of TransCanada, I would have my head in my hands, and that if I were (climate activist) Bill McKibben I would have my fist in the air after that speech. | I think there was an important development on the Keystone pipeline, and I think it's worth spending some time reading the tea leaves on that. I think the president gave a very encouraging wink and a nod to environmentalists on this issue. I think that if I were the head of TransCanada, I would have my head in my hands, and that if I were (climate activist) Bill McKibben I would have my fist in the air after that speech. |
| There is no conceivable way you can calculate this without a tripling of tar sands production, which can not be climate neutral. I think that if you read the tea leaves here, the president has kicked this argument up and away from the jobs argument and put it down on the carbon side of the discussion, and that is probably ultimately favourable to environmentalists. | There is no conceivable way you can calculate this without a tripling of tar sands production, which can not be climate neutral. I think that if you read the tea leaves here, the president has kicked this argument up and away from the jobs argument and put it down on the carbon side of the discussion, and that is probably ultimately favourable to environmentalists. |
| I think the tables are turning against Keystone. I don't think the president wants to lose his youth base by being a president who is spying on them while cooking the planet with a dumb pipeline that everybody hates. I just don't think he wants to do that. | I think the tables are turning against Keystone. I don't think the president wants to lose his youth base by being a president who is spying on them while cooking the planet with a dumb pipeline that everybody hates. I just don't think he wants to do that. |
| Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science | Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science |
| President Obama's excellent speech laid out very clearly the choice that the American people face. A high-carbon economy and unmanaged global warming will create increasing risks from rising sea levels and changes in extreme weather, fundamentally undermining the prospects for future prosperity. But investing in a transition to a low-carbon economy offers a more secure and sustainable source of growth. | President Obama's excellent speech laid out very clearly the choice that the American people face. A high-carbon economy and unmanaged global warming will create increasing risks from rising sea levels and changes in extreme weather, fundamentally undermining the prospects for future prosperity. But investing in a transition to a low-carbon economy offers a more secure and sustainable source of growth. |
| The question now is whether moderate Republicans will have the courage to break from the extreme political ideology that has straitjacketed them in denial of the scientific evidence. President Obama has laid out his personal plan for tackling climate change, but without the support from Congress for federal action, the United States will miss the opportunities that will be offered by the low-carbon industrial revolution. | The question now is whether moderate Republicans will have the courage to break from the extreme political ideology that has straitjacketed them in denial of the scientific evidence. President Obama has laid out his personal plan for tackling climate change, but without the support from Congress for federal action, the United States will miss the opportunities that will be offered by the low-carbon industrial revolution. |
| He must continue to take his argument to the American people and to force all lawmakers to face up to the task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to those impacts of climate change that cannot now be avoided. President Obama clearly wants the United States to offer international leadership on climate change. It is time for Congress to share his ambition. |