A Little, Late

Why didn’t President Bush wait until next Tuesday, Earth Day to give yesterday’s speech on global warming? The stated reason is that the speech was timed to precede the Major Economies Meeting that begins in Paris today in preparation for the upcoming G-8 meeting in July. The real reason, however, may be that the President’s advisers did not want to get a huge round of negative publicity on Earth Day itself. For that is precisely the reaction the speech received. Typical are the comments in Paris of South Africa’s environmental minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk who described the speech as a step backward, not forward, from the US position at Bali. While the President—under pressure from large US companies as well as the other G-8 leaders—deserves credit for addressing the issue, his proposals fall far short of those of Senators McCain, Obama and Clinton, many states, cities and universities and much of the business community itself.

Instead of calling for large reductions in emissions by 2020—what all three Presidential Candidates have embraced and many cities and organizations are doing--he called for an end to increases by 2025. And instead of proclaiming the need for America to lead on the issue, he once more retreated behind the fig leaf that America cannot take action unless China and India accept caps as well.

His speech coincides with new research from a University of California team that China has recently surpassed the United States in emissions as its economy continues its torrid pace of double digit growth China’s rising level of emissions underscores the need for US leadership to bring China and India into a post-Kyoto system. However, the refusal of the US to accept any discipline itself, in effect, gives China and India--whose per capita emissions are only a fraction of those in the US--a free ride.

Indeed, in line with its embrace of all things technological, China is blitzing ahead with the deployment of clean technologies across its economy. China has already invested $1 billion in wind turbines and expects to multiply its wind power ten fold by 2020. It is deploying end of pipe technologies to combat its famous pollution. And, embarrassingly, China’s cars already enjoy higher gas mileage, at 37 miles per gallon on average, than America’s fleet.

There is still a chance for the President to show leadership at the upcoming G-8 meeting in Japan in July where leaders from 16 countries including the G8, China, India and Brazil, have pledged to make climate change a priority in a special session at the sidelines. If yesterday was any indication, however, President Bush will not be the one leading the discussion.