Climate Week

The UN Climate Conference, Clinton Global Initiative, Select Committee Briefings and finally, the White House will host the world’s largest carbon emitters.

The Select Committee will be highlighting events throughout the week and providing a fact check on the Bush Administrations claims.

FRIDAY

Bush Believes “Voluntary” Action Will Solve Climate Problems

On Friday, President Bush opened the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change in Washington DC. The policy blog Hill Heat features a list of the countries that were invited to attend, and the full text of the Bush Speech can be found on the Washington Post website.

The Presidents speech was also met with protest outside the conference.

Chairman Markey’s reaction to the Presidents speech was featured in the Washington Post and New York Times.

From the Washington Post:

• "The president says his goals are aspirational, but his goals are really procrastinational," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of a new House committee on global warming. "The U.N. is saying the planet is urgently sick, and the Bush administration is saying, 'Take two aspirin and call me when I leave office.' "

• Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, attended Friday’s speech. “My fear is that the president has set aspirational goals that are really procrastinational,” he said.
  

Timeline Examines Bush Rhetoric and Reality on Global Warming

The Select Committee released a timeline on Friday that breaks down key global warming comments made by President Bush since 2000 and contrasts each statement with his actions. Download a copy HERE (pdf).

THURSDAY

Global Warming Speeches on House Floor

Members went to the House floor on Thursday to deliver speeches to fight global warming. Video of Chairman Markey's speech is HERE, and Representative Solis' speech can be found HERE.

WEDNESDAY

International Climate Leaders Meet with Select Committee

With all eyes focused on the ‘global’ part of global warming this week, Chairman Edward J. Markey and the Select Committee hosted the German minister of the environment and three Special Envoys to the UN on climate change -- two of whom are former heads of state. Statements from their presentation and the EU can be found HERE.

Letter to President

Chairman Markey, along with dozens of concerned House members, sent a letter to the President asking for more concrete global warming action on the eve of the major emitters meeting here in Washington. The letter, signed by over 30 members of the House, notes that the overwhelming scientific evidence on the immediacy of global warming means that the President's voluntary, "aspirational" goals  for cutting emissions does not go far enough. The letter asks the President to join the U.S. Congress to "put in place mandatory domestic policies that will achieve real reductions in emissions" like a cap and trade system currently being discussed in Congress.

Press Conference

Why did President Bush skip the UN climate meeting this week? Why is he threatening to veto comprehensive global warming legislation? Today Chairman Markey, Rep. Blumenauer and Rep. Inslee were joined by in front of the Capitol dome by leaders of the Environmental community to seek answers to these questions.

They emphasized that the Energy Bill was the nation’s first step and top priority in the fight to end America’s addiction to foreign oil.

Clinton Global Initiative Opens Three Day Meeting

Al Gore addressed the conference, saying:

• "This climate crisis is not going to be solved only by personal actions and business actions," Gore said Wednesday at the Clinton conference. "We need changes in laws, changes in policies, we need leadership and we need a new treaty."

Green Collar Jobs

Van Jones also addressed the Clinton Global Initiative, announcing his new campaign called “Green for All” to harness the growing power of the green economic revolution to fight the war on poverty. For more information on the House green collar jobs bill, please click HERE.

TUESDAY

Bush Fact Check

Briefing: Arctic Ice Melting at Record Rate

With reports last week that Arctic Ice melting was again breaking records – losing land masses equivalent to six times the size of California – the Select Committee held a briefing on Capitol Hill.

Mayor Stanley Tocktoo of Shishmaref, Alaska -- whose community is literally eroding into the ocean due to climate change -- warns that other towns will follow if action is not taken to fight global warming.

MONDAY

UN Opens Climate Conference

• "United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will seek to advance the global agenda on climate change when he meets with heads of state and other top officials from more than 150 countries. More than 70 heads of state or government will attend the one-day event, making it the largest meeting ever of world leaders on climate change."

“Action, Action, Action”

UN Blog Coverage

Also, for a bloggers view of the event, be sure and check out “dispatches” from the conference.

Reid-Pelosi Letter

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Bush urging him to move from rhetoric to action on climate change.

Quotes from the Week:

Timothy Wirth From the Washington Post:

• “United Nations Foundation President Timothy E. Wirth, who, as President Bill Clinton's     undersecretary of state for global affairs, helped broker the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, said the political atmosphere is more conducive to forging a global warming pact now than it was a decade ago. "The environment is one of much greater knowledge, a much greater sense of urgency and a rapidly changing politics," Wirth said. But he faulted the Bush administration for promoting dialogue without pressing for concrete commitments. "When you don't want to do anything, talk process. Nowhere in this process is this administration talking about a concrete commitment," he said. "Is this administration going to be the one to break the logjam? I haven't seen any evidence of that."
  

An Editorial from the New York Times:

• “As we know, firm targets [on climate change] are not what President Bush has in mind. Mr. Bush announced this summit in June at a time when he was under serious pressure from scientists, the Supreme Court, his Europeans allies and the nation’s governors to do something about global warming. He made it clear even then that he would continue to resist binding targets of the sort envisioned by Kyoto in favor of voluntary, country-by-country agreements — “aspirational” goals, in the words of his environmental adviser, James Connaughton, instead of real ones. If this summit legitimizes an every-nation-for-itself approach, it will have been a failure.”

From DailyKos:
Adam Siegel finds the Bush view of the climate change reminiscent of a certain Bobby McFairren song.

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