Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told representatives from 16 major world economies Monday that the United States is moving quickly to address global warming.
At an international forum on energy and climate change organized by President Barack Obama, Clinton said the U.S. no longer doubts the urgency or magnitude of the problem.
"The United States is fully engaged and ready to lead and determined to make up for lost time both at home and abroad," Clinton said at the start of the two-day meeting. "The United States is no longer absent without leave."
The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change was announced in March by Obama and includes the countries responsible for 75 percent of the global emissions of heat-trapping gases. Its goal is to lay the groundwork for an international agreement to curb climate-changing pollution by December.
That's when delegates from 175 countries will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to forge a new treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The Kyoto Protocol required 37 countries to cut emissions by a total of 5 percent by 2012.
During President George W. Bush's tenure, the United States refused to take part in the Kyoto regime, calling it unfair since it made no demands on rapidly developing economies like China and India.
Outside the State Department on Monday, police shut down a street and arrested seven Greenpeace activists for unlawful entry. Two of the environmentalists had climbed a construction crane and hung a 600-square-foot banner with an image of Earth that read: "Too big to fail. Stop global warming, rescue the planet."
Clinton referred to the fragile planet when she told leaders that the U.S. was "working tirelessly" to ensure that this time there would be a successful outcome. But she acknowledged that there is no sense in negotiating an agreement if it will not have a practical impact in reducing emissions, meaning developing countries such as India and China will have to be included.
"Of course each economy represented here is different. And some, like mine, is responsible for past emissions, some for quickly growing present emissions," she said. "But people everywhere have a legitimate aspiration for a higher standard of living. We want people to have a higher standard of living. We just hope we can work together in a way to avoid the mistakes that we made that have created a large part of the problem that we face today."
As evidence that the U.S. was taking action, Clinton cited the recent finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that six greenhouse gases pose threats to human health and welfare.
Calling it "a decisive break with past policy," Clinton said the ruling opened the door to tighter regulations on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks. But those regulations will take time.
Another Obama initiative — new legislation setting mandatory limits on greenhouse gases — is meeting stiff resistance in Congress, where House Republicans and moderate Democrats are concerned about the cost. That bill will be the primary mechanism for the U.S. to reduce emissions and will set the targets necessary to negotiate and follow through on an agreement.
At the last major meeting on a new climate treaty in Bonn earlier this month, little progress was made on two key issues: the carbon emissions targets to be adopted by rich countries and how to raise an estimated $100 billion a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change.
Developing countries want industrial nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by at least 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. The Obama administration has called for a 14 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020. Legislation being considered by Congress would reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, but opponents are already pushing for a more modest reduction.
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