[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 194 (Friday, December 18, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S13456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to speak briefly as the Copenhagen 
conference on climate change approaches its final hours.
  Earlier this week, Secretary of State Clinton announced on behalf of 
the United States the intention to work with other governments to raise 
$100 billion in long-term financing by 2020 to help developing 
countries address global climate change. This is an important 
commitment and an essential part of any comprehensive approach to 
global warming. If the United States is to play a leading role in 
addressing climate change, we must provide not only strong policies and 
resources here at home in our factories and on our farms, but also help 
poor countries adapt to rising sea levels and temperatures which affect 
agricultural productivity, and to reduce their own emissions of the 
greenhouse gases that affect every American as well as billions of 
others across the globe.
  The United States has been historically the major emitter of 
CO2, and we clearly have a responsibility to help address 
this global problem. Those who suggest otherwise ignore history. But 
this is a win-win situation: By exporting U.S. clean energy technology 
and expertise, we will also generate jobs here at home, help other 
countries reduce their emissions in a transparent, verifiable and 
accountable manner, and help to avoid the worst effects of global 
warming.
  Other nations, particularly China and India, are also major 
contributors to global warming. The administration is right to insist 
that they be part of the solution and agree to verifiable limits on 
their own greenhouse gas emissions. It is encouraging that China is 
already a major investor in renewable energy technology, but at the 
same time is building coal-fired powerplants at an alarming rate.
  For the past 8 years, the policy of the Bush administration was to 
ignore this problem. In fact it was worse than that, as the last 
administration actively sought to discredit the scientific evidence and 
oppose any efforts both here and abroad to address global warming with 
anything more than lipservice.
  Fortunately, times have changed. We have a President and a Congress 
that are committed to developing a strategy to invest in clean energy, 
energy efficiency and new high-tech infrastructure that will bring us 
to long-sought goals: energy independence, good jobs for our citizens, 
and a healthy planet for our children and grandchildren. The recently 
passed fiscal year 2010 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and 
Related Programs Appropriations Act provides more than $1.2 billion for 
climate change and environment programs overseas. This is a significant 
increase over last year. From exports of renewable energy technology to 
programs to protect tropical forests, these funds will play a part in 
our bilateral and multilateral efforts to work collectively with other 
countries.
  This and Secretary Clinton's announcement are important steps, but 
the relentless burning of fossil fuels and destruction of the world's 
remaining forests call for nothing less than unprecedented commitments 
to reverse these trends. There is already speculation that Copenhagen 
will fall far short of what is needed. I am hopeful that before the 
conference concludes the Obama administration will demonstrate further 
that the U.S. is going to do what is necessary so future generations 
will not look back and ask why we failed when faced with this great 
challenge.

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