[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 16, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S6873]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BIDEN (for himself, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Menendez, and Mr. 
        Hagel):
  S. 3273. A bill to promote the international deployment of clean 
technology, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, with every new scientific report, the 
threat of global climate change becomes clearer. With every new 
economic report, the energy needs of developing countries continue to 
grow as millions of their citizens move out of poverty.
  From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we here in the 
United States, along with the other industrial nations, grew our 
economies using cheap energy, building up the stock of greenhouse gases 
now in our atmosphere. But, today, even as we try to maintain economic 
growth with lower emissions, developing nations threaten to overwhelm 
any gains we can make in the fight against climate change.
  No matter what we in the U.S. do about our own energy use, the 
developing world's demand for energy--in its cheapest form, from fossil 
fuels--will continue to rise. That would be a disaster. According to 
the International Energy Agency, by 2030 energy demand worldwide will 
increase by 55 percent, and nearly 80 percent of this rise will be in 
developing countries.
  To address the threat of climate change, we must steer those 
countries onto a path of cleaner energy and cleaner development. It is 
in our national interest to reduce the environmental, economic, and 
national security threat of a changed global climate. But this is not 
just about avoiding threats. This can be an opportunity for the U.S. to 
capture the markets of the future, the next generation of clean power 
technologies.
  That is why I am joining today with Senators Lugar, Menendez, and 
Hagel to introduce legislation to create an International Clean 
Technology Deployment Fund. This fund will be available to promote the 
international deployment of U.S. technology as a new component to our 
overall international economic development assistance. By supporting 
the market for that technology, it can help to stimulate research, 
investment, and job creation in industries with the potential for long-
term growth. This can be a win for the planet and a win for our 
economy.
  From its beginning in 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention 
on Climate Change has called for mechanisms whereby the developed, 
industrialized nations can provide the means for developing nations to 
reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. As recently as the last major 
meeting of the parties to that convention at Bali last December, that 
principle was reiterated as part of the Bali Action Plan.
  In a similar vein, when President Bush submitted his budget earlier 
this year, he called for funding to support U.S. participation in a 
Clean Technology Fund, to be housed at the World Bank. That is one 
approach for which the resources our legislation authorizes could be 
used. Our allies, including Great Britain, and Japan, are among other 
donors interested in the establishment of that fund, whose goals are 
similar to those of the legislation we are introducing today.
  The purpose of our legislation is, and I quote, ``to promote and 
leverage private financing for the development and international 
deployment of technologies that will contribute to sustainable economic 
growth and the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the 
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic 
interference with the climate system.''
  An important goal of our legislation is to add the consideration of 
climate change more consistently and systematically to our foreign 
assistance strategy. The majority of greenhouse gas emissions in the 
future will be coming from the developing countries of the world. The 
choice is simple--we can ignore the climate impact of our assistance 
programs, or we can move those programs into a comprehensive strategy 
of clean economic development.
  In this legislation, we establish an International Clean Technology 
Deployment Fund, to support the export of U.S. clean energy technology 
and expertise to developing nations. The Fund will be administered by a 
Board composed of relevant executive branch officials. They are 
authorized to distribute money in a number of ways, provided certain 
triggers are met. These ways include through multilateral trust funds, 
bilateral initiatives, existing U.S. programs such as USAID and 
technical assistance programs.
  Funds can only go to eligible countries. A country, to be eligible, 
first must be a developing country. More importantly, it must take on 
its own climate change commitments, either through an international 
agreement to which the U.S. is a party, or by taking on what the Board 
certifies are sufficient binding national commitments. Additionally, 
every distribution of funding will require prior congressional 
notification.
  Our bipartisan coalition, in consultation with many interested 
groups, worked to achieve a structure that will ensure that we have a 
range of options to help developing countries grow on a cleaner path, 
but still achieve real reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions.
  The Bali Action Plan, which the U.S. agreed to last December, sets 
the goal of reaching a new global agreement by December 2009, when 
parties will meet in Copenhagen. This is an ambitious schedule, made 
more complicated by our election schedule here at home.
  With the time so short, it is our hope that this bill will begin to 
address some part of the Bali Action Plan, which includes support for 
developing countries in addressing technology deployment, adaptation, 
and deforestation. Our legislation addresses just one part of that 
framework, but it is an important one.
  It can put the developing countries on a path of clean, sustainable 
economic growth, protect us and our children from the economic and 
security threats of global climate change, and help us create the 
industries and jobs of the future.
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