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Obama promises action on
climate change
By Brian Knowlton Published: November
18, 2008
WASHINGTON:
President-elect Barack Obama pointedly confirmed on
Tuesday that he planned to stick to the aggressive
targets he had set earlier for fighting climate
change and for spurring the development of
clean-energy technology, saying, "Delay is no longer
an option."
The remarks were all the more striking for being
made, in what was billed as a "surprise taped
statement," before a bipartisan conference on
climate change in Los Angeles that included
governors who had battled the Bush administration in
an effort to pass stricter pollution standards than
federal guidelines required.
Officials from at least 10 other countries were also
present, and Obama addressed his comments to them
when he said, "Solving this problem will require all
of us working together." He said he had asked
lawmakers who would attend a climate-change
conference next month in Poland to report back
to him.
Obama's remarks were sure to be welcomed by
Europeans and others who have been urging the
current administration to take tougher measures ever
since President George W. Bush turned his back on
the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in 2001.
Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources
Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group,
said the call for legislation to cap emissions, one
of the first specific policy statements Obama had
made since his election, was a particularly
important signal that he would, as he promised
during the campaign, make global warming a
top priority.
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