Addressing climate change through real results

When it comes to climate change, the United States and European countries, including Malta, have more in common than we sometimes realise.

We share the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We share the goal of introducing new, cleaner technologies and alternative, cleaner-burning fuels. We share the goal of ensuring that our populations have a secure and consistent supply of energy to meet diverse needs. And we share the goal of reducing the impact of human activities on the global climate system.

Malta has demonstrated its commitment by working steadily with local and European entities to control and reduce pollution and greenhouse emissions.

Recent schemes, such as the Park-and-Ride project, and the decision to purchase fuel with low sulfur content to be used in power stations are very promising. The other day, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) announced the installation of another two air-monitoring stations in Msida and Zejtun, with funding from the European Union. Malta is taking the necessary measures to reduce environmental damage.

This month, the film The Inconvenient Truth, featuring former Vice President Al Gore, will be released in Maltese cinemas. The film takes a look at the effects of global warming and is an appeal to all nations to save our planet from irrevocable change. Last week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a gloomy picture of the effects humans have had on climate change. Both the report and the film are further reinforcement of the advancing science. Global warming should not be a political concern, but it is a moral challenge that all mankind must face together. Europe and the United States can and should expand our cooperation in achieving the goal to reduce emissions.

During his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announced an important new plan that will make a real difference in meeting the challenges of climate change, energy security, and sustainable development.

The President's plan mixes mandatory measures, incentives, and voluntary programmes. It relies on the new technologies that will allow for a future of both environmental stewardship and economic growth.

The President's plan will reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 per cent over the next decade. We call it "Twenty in Ten". It will stop the projected growth of carbon dioxide emissions from US cars and SUVs and will also reduce our dependence on oil that has left us vulnerable to hostile regimes and terrorists.

Two features of the plan jump out immediately. The first is the focus on road transportation, which is the second largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over 22 per cent of our emissions in 2004.

The second is that we are rapidly accelerating the deployment of renewable fuels. The United States is already the global leader in the production of biofuels. Under the President's new plan, we will raise the existing mandatory fuels standard to require the use of 130 billion litres of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017 - nearly five times the 2012 target now in law.

The sources will be diverse. They will include ethanol from corn, plant waste, and wood chips, as well as biodiesel, methanol, and other alternative fuels.

This will have a real impact. The increase in renewable fuels will displace as much as 15 per cent of projected annual gasoline use.

But we're not stopping there in reducing our use of fossil fuels. By reforming and increasing the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars and extending an existing rule for light trucks, we expect to cut gasoline use by an additional five per cent, or 32 billion litres.

These strengthened fuel efficiency standards will lead consumers to replace even more of the auto fleet with efficient new vehicles. This is how we get to a 20 per cent reduction by 2017. How will the plan affect the environment? Increasing the use of renewable fuels and mandating tougher standards could cut annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 10 per cent, or about 175 million metric tons, by 2017. To put this into perspective, this would be like making 26 million automobiles emissions-free.

President Bush's plan builds on a long record of action on global climate change that all too often goes overlooked.

In 2002, the President set an ambitious goal to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the US economy by 18 per cent by 2012. We have in place a diverse portfolio of policy measures, including dozens of mandatory, incentive-based and voluntary programmes to meet this goal - and results to show for them.

Our emissions performance since 2000 has been among the best in the developed world. According to International Energy Agency data, from 2000-2004, US CO2 emissions increased by 1.7 per cent. This was a very modest growth, considering that during that time, our real GDP grew by 9.6 per cent, and our population increased by 11.5 million people. To put this into perspective, the European Union reduced its growth in CO2 emissions during the same period to roughly five per cent. The public and private sectors in the United States have already invested more than $29 billion in climate change and clean energy technology programmes. We have made major progress on developing new, cleaner engines for automobiles, clean-coal technology to produce electricity, and more efficient wind, solar, and battery technology, just to name a few. These technological breakthroughs will enable us to achieve our climate goals in the context of a growing economy and a growing population. In addition to taking action at home, the United States is collaborating with countries around the world to address climate change.

The United States has worked in partnership with countries in the Asia-Pacific region through the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP). It is one of our most important programmes because it generates results where they matter most: in the countries that are the world's major emitters of greenhouse gases.

We started the APP a year ago to bring together Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States to tackle complementary energy, economic, and environmental goals. Those six countries account for about half of the world's economic output, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions. In each APP country, governments and the private sector have forged partnerships to develop and deploy clean, efficient energy technologies. Emissions from developing countries - most prominently, China and India - are forecast to surpass emissions of developed countries by 2010. The APP includes China and India as equal partners, and anticipates their participation in most of its cooperative projects to address climate change and simultaneously promote economic development.

The United States is engaged in a variety of partnerships with other countries to promote development and deployment of new, cleaner technologies and to share expertise. These include partnerships to collect and reuse methane - a powerful greenhouse gas; to capture and safely store carbon dioxide; and to develop cost-effective hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies.

We already engage in these kinds of partnerships with EU countries. But we can go further. The United States and our embassy in Malta are eager to work with the government of Malta and the private sector to share ideas, best practices, and facilitate the exchange of new technologies and research and development. Together, Europe and the United States can address this serious global challenge.

Ms Bordonaro is the US Ambassador to Malta.