Senators tell global forum US must lead on warming
15 Feb 2007 04:17:36 GMT Source: Reuters
(Corrects Lieberman's political affiliation in fifth paragraph to independent instead of Democrat) By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Corporate moguls, policy experts and U.S. senators spoke with one voice about global warming on Wednesday, telling a world forum that the United States must take a lead role in cutting greenhouse gases if it wants to encourage China and India to do the same. At a Capitol Hill meeting that included representatives from the Group of Eight industrialized nations plus China, India, South Africa, Brazil and the European Union, Sen. John McCain put the case for action on climate change bluntly. "The debate is over, my friends," the Arizona Republican said. "Now the question is what do we do? Do we act, do we care enough about the young people of the next generation to act seriously and meaningfully, or are we going to just continue this debate and this discussion?" McCain said the push to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that spur global climate change was a national security issue, and that voluntary efforts to limit these emissions from vehicles, power plants and other human sources "will not change the status quo." McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, have pushed legislation that would set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, and allow those that exceed them to trade with others that are under the limit, a plan known as cap-and-trade. Lieberman, who also addressed the group in the ornate Senate Caucus Room, noted growing momentum for U.S. action "after many years of denial and inaction" on global warming. "I want to make a prediction, which is that the Congress of the United States will enact a nationwide law mandating substantial reductions in greenhouse gases before the end of this Congress or early in the next," Lieberman said. This session of Congress ends in late 2008. The Bush administration has rejected calls for mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions, maintaining that such caps would harm the U.S. economy. Jim Rogers, the chief of Duke Energy, applauded the mandatory cap-and-trade approach, and stressed that if the United States did not act soon to cut greenhouse emissions, fast-developing China and India probably would not participate in any global emissions-cutting program. Sir Richard Branson, chief of Virgin Airlines and other ventures, said leadership and sacrifice were required to tackle global warming, but credited the United States for growing markets for renewable energy and green technologies. Branson announced last week in London a $25 million prize for the first person to find a way to scrub greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
