US President Barack Obama will unveil a comprehensive plan to deal with climate change that would include new measures to reduce carbon pollution and lead global efforts to fight global warming.
“I’ll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go —— a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change, and lead global efforts to fight it,” Obama said.
“We owe it to our kids to do something about climate change,” the President wrote on Twitter, ahead of his speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday.
In his video message, Obama said there’s no single step that can reverse the effects of climate change.
“But when it comes to the world we leave our children, we owe it to them to do what we can,” he said.
Obama noted that in his inaugural address, he had pledged that America would respond to the growing threat of climate change for the sake of the country’s children and future generations.
“This is a serious challenge — but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths. We’ll need scientists to design new fuels, and farmers to grow them. We’ll need engineers to devise new sources of energy, and businesses to make and sell them,” he said.
“We’ll need workers to build the foundation for a clean energy economy. And we’ll need all of us, as citizens, to do our part to preserve God’s creation for future generations — our forests and waterways, our croplands and snowcapped peaks,” Obama added.
But his attempts to introduce a cap—and—trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions were thwarted by his opponents in Congress with many Republicans arguing that his attempts to tackle climate change are wasteful and give too much power to the state.
The US is the world’s second biggest producer of carbon dioxide after China.
US media report that Obama is now intending to introduce a series of executive actions, which can be put into effect by various federal agencies without Congress approval.
The measures reportedly will include tighter regulation of coal—fired power plants and making more land available for wind farms and other renewable energy projects.