Senators Joe Lieberman (Independent) and John Warner (Republican) presented a new initiative to tackle global warming on 18 October. The new proposal (“America’s Climate Security Act”) got the support of several senators from both main parties and some environmental think tanks. The proposed bill introduces a mandatory cap-and-trade system similar to the EU’s emission trading scheme starting from 2012 and aims at bringing greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2015 (a 15% reduction) and reduce them further to 65% less emissions by 2050 (compared to 1990).
Industry groups reacted negatively to the new proposal saying it would undermine the competitiveness of the American industry, while some green NGOs criticised the bill for not going far enough.
Some commentators expect this proposal to have a good chance of getting adopted by the beginning of 2008. The proposal is still much less ambitious than the EU’s ambition of a 20% cut of emissions by 2020.
Further reading:
- Full text of the new Climate Security Act (from the Lieberman website)
- Press release Joe Lieberman
- One-pager on the Lieberman-Warner proposal
- SFGate.com: Historic bill in Senate to fight warming
- Earth Times: Legislators introduce ‘breakthrough’ climate bill in US Congress
- Nature: US climate bill calls for emission caps
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carbon trading, Climate change, Global Warming, US climate policy |
