Climate Week Is Key Stop on Road to Copenhagen

Huffington Post

Climate Week Is Key Stop on Road to Copenhagen

Rep. Edward Markey | September 21, 2009 | Huffington Post

This week, leaders from around the world will gather in New York and Pittsburgh for "climate week" with a keen eye on the home team. Key meetings at the United Nations and the G-20 Summit will set the table for the Copenhagen conference -- just over 70 days away -- where a potential international agreement to fight climate change (or global warming pollution) hangs in the balance.

Since I became Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, I have maintained that the most effective way for advancing the negotiations of the next international climate change agreement would be for the United States to show leadership by leading in clean energy technology and committing to mandatory domestic reductions of heat-trapping pollution. In June, the House of Representatives took the first step by passing the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act.

To the rest of the world, House passage of Waxman-Markey signaled America's growing commitment to preventing climate change and building a global clean energy economy. It helped leaders at the G8 and the Major Economies Forum held in Italy this July reach agreement on important points, including the need for emissions to peak as soon as possible, commitments to prepare "Low Carbon Growth Plans," and a pledge by developing countries to take actions that would meaningfully reduce their emissions from their current trajectories.

Read the full text at the Huffington Post.

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