U.S. SEN. SNOWE, UNF PRESIDENT,
HARVARD CLIMATOLOGIST –
U.S. MEMBERS OF INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE
TASKFORCE –
AND AMERICAN PROGRESS CEO LAUD CALIF. GOV.
SCHWARZENEGGER’S PROPOSAL TO SHARPLY
CUT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Washington,
D.C., June 1 – The U.S. members
of the International Climate Change Task
Force – convened last year to recommend
initiatives to government policymakers
worldwide – and the head of the
Center for American Progress, which co-sponsored
the Task Force, today expressed support
for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
executive order to sharply reduce greenhouse
gas emissions over the next 50 years.
Sen.
Olympia Snowe (R-ME); former Sen. Timothy
E. Wirth, president of the United Nations
Foundation; John Podesta, president and
CEO of the Center for American Progress;
and, Harvard University Professor John
P. Holdren jointly issued the following
statement:
“Every
day it becomes more and more clear that
a major shift in the world’s energy
systems will be needed to prevent dangerous
interference with the climate. United
Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair has
recognized that challenge, and is aiming
his country toward a 60-percent reduction
by 2050. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
now has shown similar vision through his
establishment of aggressive emissions
reduction targets and his mobilization
of his cabinet to get the job done. We
commend him for his leadership in California,
the sixth largest economy in the world
and America’s largest state. Governor
Schwarzenegger’s commitment underscores
the realization that we must take action
now to address global climate change,
which is already affecting our daily lives.
His announcement, coupled with other emission-cutting
pledges announced at the start of World
Environment Day activities, show the need
for even more significant responses beyond
the Kyoto Protocol limits. California’s
commitment joins the commitments made
previously by some other smaller states,
including Senator Snowe’s State
of Maine, which in 2003 enacted legislation
to reduce CO2 emissions to 1990 levels
by 2010, 10 percent below 1990 levels
by 2020, and by as much as 75—80
percent over the long term.
“With
the convening of the world’s largest
eight economies in July in Scotland and
with Prime Minister Blair’s leadership
and personal commitment, we have an opportunity
to achieve greater progress in addressing
global climate change. This is a major
opportunity for the United States to reassert
its leadership in working with other countries
to seriously confront what is one of the
largest challenges of the 21st Century.”
The
UN Foundation was created in 1998 with
businessman and philanthropist Ted Turner’s
historic $1 billion gift to support United
Nations’ causes. The UN Foundation
promotes a more peaceful, prosperous,
and just world through the support of
the UN. Through its grant making and by
building new and innovative public-private
partnerships, the UN Foundation acts to
meet the most pressing health, humanitarian,
socioeconomic, and environmental challenges
of the 21st century.
