    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 39 (Monday, October 1, 2007)]
    [Pages 1261-1265]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks During a Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change

    September 28, 2007

        Thank you all. Please be seated. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you.
    Welcome to the State Department. I'm honored to address this historic
    meeting on energy security and climate change. And I appreciate you all
    being here.
        Energy security and climate change are two of the great challenges
    of our time. The United States takes these challenges seriously. The
    world's response will help shape the future of the global economy and
    the condition of our environment for future generations. The nations in
    this room have special responsibilities. We represent the world's major
    economies; we are major users of energy; and we have the resources and
    knowledge base to develop clean energy technologies.
        Our guiding principle is clear: We must lead the world to produce
    fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not
    undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater
    prosperity for their people. We know this can be done. Last year,
    America grew our economy while also reducing greenhouse gases. Several
    other nations have made similar strides.
        This progress points us in the right direction, but we've got to do
    more. So before this year's G-8 summit, I announced that the United
    States will work with other nations to establish a new international
    approach to energy security and climate change. Today's meeting is an
    important step in this process. With the work we begin today, we can
    agree on a new approach that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
    strengthen energy security, encourage economic growth and sustainable
    development, and advance negotiations under the United Nations Framework
    Convention on Climate Change.
        I thank the State Department for hosting this event. I appreciate
    members of my Cabinet who have joined us today. I thank Jim Connaughton,
    who is the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, for being
    here. I appreciate you being the personal representative of this, and I
    hope you're doing--I hope you think he's doing a fine job. [Laughter]
        I welcome Minister Rachmat, the Minister of Environment of
    Indonesia, who is the chairman of the upcoming U.N. climate meeting in
    December. I welcome Mr. de Boer, who is the Executive Secretary of the
    United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. I welcome all the
    Ministers and delegates who are here. We really appreciate you coming. I
    thank the Ambassadors for joining this august group.
        I thank Members of the Congress who have taken time to come by:
    Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Congressman Bart Gordon of
    Tennessee. I appreciate you taking time to come by and participate in
    these meetings.
        Every day, energy brings countless benefits to our people. Energy
    powers new hospitals and schools, so we can live longer and more
    productive lives. Energy transforms the way we produce food, so we can
    feed our growing populations. Energy enables us to travel and
    communicate across great distances, so we can expand trade and
    prosperity. Energy sustains the world's most advanced economies, which
    makes it possible for us to devote resources to fighting hunger and
    disease and poverty around the globe.
        In this new century, the need for energy will only grow. Much of
    this increased demand will come from the developing world, where nations
    will need more energy to build critical infrastructure and grow their
    economies, improve the lives of their people. Overall, the demand for
    energy is expected to rise by more than 50 percent by 2030.
        This growing demand for energy is a sign of a vibrant, global
    economy. Yet it also possesses--poses serious challenges, and one of
    them, of course, is energy security. Right now much of the world's
    energy comes from oil, and much of the oil comes from unstable regions
    and rogue states. This dependence leaves the global economy vulnerable
    to supply shocks and shortages and manipulation and to extremists and
    terrorists who could cause great disruptions of oil shipments.
        Another challenge is climate change. Our understanding of climate
    change has come a long way. A report issued earlier this year

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    by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded both
    that global temperatures are rising and that this is caused largely by
    human activities. When we burn fossil fuels, we release greenhouse gases
    into the atmosphere, and the concentration of greenhouse gases has
    increased substantially.
        For many years, those who worried about climate change and those who
    worried about energy security were on opposite ends of the debate. It
    was said that we faced a choice between protecting the environment and
    producing enough energy. Today, we know better. These challenges share a
    common solution: technology. By developing new low-emission
    technologies, we can meet the growing demand for energy and, at the same
    time, reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result,
    our nations have an opportunity to leave the debates of the past behind
    and reach a consensus on the way forward. And that's our purpose today.
        No one country has all the answers, including mine. The best way to
    tackle this problem is to think creatively and to learn from others'
    experiences and to come together on a way to achieve the objectives we
    share. Together our nations will pave the way for a new international
    approach on greenhouse gas emissions.
        This new approach must involve all the world's largest producers of
    greenhouse gas emissions, including developed and developing nations. We
    will set a long-term goal for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
    By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem. And by setting
    this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it.
        By next summer, we will convene a meeting of heads of state to
    finalize the goal and other elements of this approach, including a
    strong and transparent system for measuring our progress toward meeting
    the goal we set. This will require concerted effort by all our nations.
    Only by doing the necessary work this year will it be possible to reach
    a global consensus at the U.N. in 2009.
        Each nation will design its own separate strategies for making
    progress toward achieving this long-term goal. These strategies will
    reflect each country's different energy resources, different stages of
    development, and different economic needs.
        There are many policy tools that nations can use, including a
    variety of market mechanisms to create incentives for companies and
    consumers to invest in new low-emission energy sources. We will also
    form working groups with leaders of different sectors of our economies,
    which will discuss ways of sharing technology and best practices.
        Each nation must decide for itself the right mix of tools and
    technologies to achieve results that are measurable and environmentally
    effective. While our strategies may be differentiated, we share a common
    responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping our
    economies growing.
        The key to this effort will be the advance of clean energy
    technologies. Since I became President, the United States Government has
    invested nearly $18 billion to research, develop, and promote clean and
    efficient energy technologies. The private sector here in our country
    has responded with significant investments, ranging from corporate
    research and development to venture capital. Our investments in research
    and technology are bringing the world closer to a remarkable
    breakthrough, an age of clean energy where we can power our growing
    economies and improve the lives of our people and be responsible
    stewards of the Earth the Almighty trusted to our care.
        The age of clean energy requires transforming the way we produce
    electricity. Electric powerplants that burn coal are the world's leading
    cause of greenhouse gas emissions. The world's supply of coal is secure
    and abundant. And our challenge is to take advantage of it while
    maintaining our commitment to the environment. One promising solution is
    advanced clean coal technology. The future of this technology will allow
    us to trap and store carbon emissions and air pollutants produced by
    burning coal. Since 2001, the United States has invested more than two
    and a half billion dollars to research and develop clean coal. And in
    partnership with other nations and the private sector, we're moving
    closer to an historic achievement: producing energy from the world's
    first zero-emissions coal-fired plant.

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        We also need to take advantage of clean, safe nuclear power. Nuclear
    power is the one existing source of energy that can generate massive
    amounts of electricity without causing any air pollution or greenhouse
    gas emissions. Without the world's 439 nuclear powerplants, there would
    be nearly 2 billion additional tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
    each year. And by expanding the use of nuclear power, we can reduce
    greenhouse gas emissions even more.
        The United States is working to reduce barriers to new nuclear
    powerplants in our country without compromising safety. Just last week,
    a company applied for approval to build the first new nuclear reactor in
    my country since the 1970s.
        As we build new reactors here in the United States, we're also
    working to bring the benefits of nuclear energy to other countries. My
    administration established a new initiative called the Global Nuclear
    Energy Partnership. This partnership will work with nations with
    advanced civilian nuclear energy programs, such as France and Japan and
    China and Russia. Together we will help developing nations obtain
    secure, cost-effective, and proliferation-resistant nuclear power, so
    they can have a reliable source of zero-emissions energy.
        We'll also need to expand our use of two other promising sources of
    zero-emissions energy, and that's wind and solar power. Wind power is
    becoming cost-effective in many parts of America. We've increased wind
    energy production by more than 300 percent. We also launched the Solar
    America Initiative to lower the cost of solar power, so we can make--
    help make this technology competitive as well. Taken together, low-
    carbon technologies like wind and solar power have the potential to one
    day provide up to 20 percent of America's electricity.
        The age of clean energy also requires transforming the way we fuel
    our cars and trucks. Almost all our vehicles run on gasoline or diesel
    fuel. This means we produce greenhouse gas emissions whenever we get
    behind the wheel. Transportation accounts for about 20 percent of the
    world's greenhouse gas emissions every year. To reduce these emissions,
    we must reduce our dependence on oil. So America is investing in new,
    clean alternatives. We're investing millions of dollars to develop the
    next generation of sustainable biofuels like cellulosic ethanol, which
    means we'll use everything from wood chips to grasses to agricultural
    waste to make ethanol.
        We're offering tax credits to encourage Americans to drive fuel-
    efficient hybrid vehicles. We're working to develop next-generation
    plug-in hybrids that will be able to travel nearly 40 miles without
    using a drop of gasoline. And your automobile doesn't have to look like
    a golf cart. [Laughter]
        We're on track to meet our pledge of investing $1.2 billion to
    develop advanced hydrogen-powered vehicles that emit pure water instead
    of exhaust fumes. We're also taking steps to make sure these
    technologies reach the market. We've asked Congress to set a new
    mandatory--I repeat, mandatory--fuel standard that requires 35 billion
    gallons of renewable and other alternative fuels in 2017 and to reform
    fuel economy standards for cars the same way we did for light trucks.
    Together these two steps will help us cut America's consumption of
    gasoline by 20 percent in 10 years. It's an initiative I've called 20-
    in-10.
        Ushering in the age of clean energy is an historic undertaking. We
    take it seriously here in the United States. And achieving this vision
    will require major investment in innovation by all our nations. Today,
    the United States and Japan fund most of the research and development
    for clean energy technologies. But meeting the objectives we share and
    the goal we're going to set will require all the nations in this hall to
    increase their clean energy research and development investments.
        We must also work to make these technologies more widely available,
    especially in the developing world. So today I propose that we join
    together to create a new international clean technology fund. This fund
    will be supported by contributions from Governments from around the
    world, and it will help finance clean energy projects in the developing
    world. I've asked Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to coordinate this
    effort, and he plans to begin exploratory discussions with your
    countries over the next several months.

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        At the same time, we also must promote global free trade in energy
    technology. The most immediate and effective action we can take is to
    eliminate tariff and nontariff barriers on clean-energy goods and
    services.
        As we work to transform the way we produce energy, we must also
    address another major factor in climate change, which is deforestation.
    The world's forests help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the
    atmosphere by storing carbon dioxide. But when our forests disappear,
    the concentration of greenhouse gas levels rise in the atmosphere.
    Scientists estimate that nearly 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gas
    admissions are attributable to deforestation.
        We're partnering with other nations to promote forest conservation
    and management across the world. We welcome new commitments from
    Australia, Brazil, with China and Indonesia. The United States remains
    committed to initiatives such as the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and
    the Asian Forest Partnership. We will continue our efforts through the
    Tropical Forest Conservation Act, which helps developing nations
    redirect debt payments toward forest conservation programs. So far, my
    administration has concluded 12 agreements, concluding up to 50 million
    acres of forest lands. America's efforts also include an $87-million
    initiative to help developing nations stop illegal logging. These
    efforts will help developing nations save their forests and combat a
    major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
        The United States is also taking steps to protect forests in our own
    country. It's one thing to help others; we got to make sure we do a good
    job here at home--and we are. Since 2001, we've provided more than $3
    billion to restore our forests and protect them against catastrophic
    fires as part of the Healthy Forests Initiative. In partnership with our
    farmers and ranchers, we're providing tens of billions of dollars in
    incentives for conservation. We're promoting sustainable public and
    private land management policies. By taking these steps, we've helped
    increase the amount of carbon storage in our forests, and we've helped
    safeguard a national treasure for generations to come.
        What I'm telling you is, is that we've got a strategy; we've got a
    comprehensive approach. And we look forward to working with our Congress
    to make sure that comprehensive approach is effective. And we look
    forward to working with you as a part of this global effort to do our
    duty.
        And we've done this kind of work before. And we have confidence in
    the success of our efforts. Twenty years ago, nations finalized an
    agreement called the Montreal Protocol to phase out substances that were
    depleting the ozone layer. Since then, we have made great strides to
    repair the damage. Just last week, developed and developing nations
    reached consensus on speeding up the recovery of the ozone layer by
    accelerating the phaseout of these harmful substances. This accelerated
    phaseout will bring larger benefits because they'll dramatically reduce
    greenhouse gas emissions.
        We have seen what happens when we come together to work for a common
    cause, and we can do it again. And that's what I'm here to urge you. The
    United States will do our part. We take this issue seriously. And we
    look forward to bringing a spirit of cooperation and commitment to our
    efforts to confront the challenges of energy security and climate
    change. By working together, we will set wise and effective policies.
    That's what I'm interested in, effective policies. I want to get the job
    done. We've identified a problem; let's go solve it together.
        We will harness the power of technology. There is a way forward that
    will enable us to grow our economies and protect the environment, and
    that's called technology. We'll meet our energy needs. We'll be good
    stewards of this environment. Achieving these goals will require a
    sustained effort over many decades; this problem isn't going to be
    solved overnight. Yet years from now, our children are going to look
    back at the choices we make today, at this deciding moment. It will be a
    moment when we choose to expand prosperity instead of accepting
    stagnation. It will be a moment when we turn the tide against greenhouse
    gas emissions, instead of allowing the problem to grow. It will be a
    moment when we rejected the predictions of despair and set a course of a
    more hopeful future.

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        The moment is now, and I appreciate you attending this meeting. And
    we look forward to working with you. May God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:09 a.m. at the Department of State.