Tech Policy

Bush on Climate Change

The New York Times published excerpts from an Aug. 26, 2004 interview with President Bush (Excerpts of an Interview With President Bush). Thanks to Helen for pointing it out. The entire thing is worth a read but the back and forth on climate change is relevant to this blog. It does not appear that the President was aware of Wednesday's report by the Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research (it also does not appear that the reporter had all the facts about who issued the report). The exchange is here:

UK to push US on Climate Change

Tuesday’s Guardian reports that British Prime Minister Tony Blair will use his ascension to the chair of both the European Union and the G8 next year to push global action on climate change (UK to take tough line against US over Kyoto).

The article discusses an upcoming "big" speech by PM Blair on climate change and details comments by Lord Whitty, an environmental minister. Lord Whitty praised U.S. research but said that immediate action was needed. He also floated a balloon on air fuel taxes:

In answer to questions about aircraft pollution he admitted he personally favours a pan-European, preferably, a global tax to tackle a fast-growing problem. Aviation fuel is untaxed.

The article closes by commenting the UK ministers recognize that they are going to fail to meet their (ambitious) goal of 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010.

I think this is going to be an interesting area to watch over the next year. We will have to see if PM Blair is able to bring the US (and, to some extent, the UK) around to real action on climate change. The election is obviously going to be a big factor in the shape of the path forward. A Kerry victory would probably open the door for a big push to agree to Kyoto and move into the next round of climate negotiations with better attitudes all around. I'm pretty certain the Kyoto would still not pass Congress but Kerry keeps talking about international cooperation and his verbal agreement (even without U.S. Congressional approval) to Kyoto would be a symbolic step for his new presidency. A Bush reelection will present more challenges for Blair. Current U.S. climate change policy is very much rooted in research and development for the future (20 years in the future). It has proven difficult and will likely continue to prove difficult to move the current administration into near-term action.

On the topic of U.S. climate change policy, the Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research released the details of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005. The news coverage has been limited but interesting ("a striking shift in the way the Bush administration has portrayed the science of climate change"). I am hoping to look through the report and post about it.

They bug me, they BugMeNot

For any new visitors, I wanted to say that this is, for TechPolicy, a summer lull. I'm sure posting will pick up as summer winds down.

Wanted to share a website whose soul purpose is to circumvent the tracking of what you read by other websites. BugMeNot provides a way for you to log in to websites that require usernames without devulging your own personal information. Should be useful to allow "post"-ers and readers here to get access unfettered.