WASHINGTON, D.C.―When President-elect Obama assumes office on Jan. 20, he will face a multitude of urgent problems, and climate change may turn out, in the long term, to be the most important one to get right, according to a Congressional briefing held Nov. 13 on Capitol Hill.
The incoming Administration and the 111th Congress will need to address climate change along side other priorities, such as energy insecurity, unemployment, and national security. These interrelationships need to become better understood, according to the briefing.
“You cannot consider climate change without addressing energy, and you cannot address energy without considering where you are getting it … and when you analyze where we are getting much of our oil, it is in the least stable regions of the world … and that involves our national security …,” said former Senator Gary Hart (CO).
Sen. Hart strongly recommended to the participants at the briefing a study undertaken a few years ago by the Center for Naval Affairs, which concluded that climate change is a national security issue.
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) joined with the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), to sponsor the Congressional briefing that overflowed with attendees.
William Becker, Executive Director of the PCAP, said the PCAP report provides the 44th President, Barack Obama, with a comprehensive plan to take bold action on climate change within 100 days. In preparation for the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in Dec. 2009, world leaders are looking to the new U.S. President for an indication of the kind of leadership and actions he will take to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
Action in the Next 4 Years Critical
Indeed, the PCAP plan does boldly recommend ways to cope with climate change, the unsustainable energy policies, and the “old economy” (which is rapidly becoming “dysfunctional and obsolete”), while endeavoring to be above partisan politics.
It was stated at the meeting that “we are rapidly running out of time,” to change the priorities of the country and place the country’s economy and energy sources on a new sustainable path, while stopping the rise in the Earth’s temperature.
