WWF'S Climate Change expert testifies before US Senate
03 Mar 2004
Washington: Dr. Lara Hansen, WWF-United States Chief Scientist, Climate Change Program, testified before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about the impacts of climate change.
Dr Hansen was invited to testify before this committee after WWF-Australia's report, The Implications of Climate Change for Australia's Great Barrier Reef , came to the attention of Senator John McCain's office, who chairs the committee.
The US is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, producing 5,673 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum. Currently the US Government has not agreed to any binding limit on its emission levels and has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Last October, in a demonstration of bi-partisan support, the Republican McCain and Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman proposed a bill setting mandatory caps on CO2 emissions in the United States to 2000 levels by the year 2010. Given that CO2 is the greatest contributing gas to global warming, this bill was a clear rebuke to the Bush Administration's strong stand against mandatory limits on CO2 emissions.
When it came to voting on the bill, 43 senators supported the bill and 55 were against. While the bill was never expected to pass, the amount of support it received indicated that the US senate is beginning to seriously consider taking action to address the environmental problem of global warming.
At the time, Senator McCain pledged to keep bringing the issue back before the US Senate until it takes a responsible approach to global warming.
WWF-Australia is delighted that its report has played a part in bringing this issue back onto the agenda of the US Senate.
WWF hopes that the Australian Government also realises that taking mandatory actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today will be instrumental in securing the economic and environmental wealth of Australia tomorrow.
