U.S. declares greenhouse gases health hazard
On December 7th on the opening day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, being attended by 192 countries to December 18th, the U.S. government delivered a jolt of fresh optimism by formally declaring six greenhouse gases harmful to public health, strengthening President Obama’s push for a new climate change accord in Copenhagen. Mr. Obama plans to attend the Copenhagen conference late next week.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ruling about the health hazards of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases would allow EPA to use the Clean Air Act to regulate industrial emissions. Although Mr. Obama has made energy reform one of his top priorities and hopes to win the backing of the U.S. Congress to cut emissions by 17 per cent by 2020 and about 80 per cent by the middle of the century, the EPA’s ruling is likely to spur legislators and will also pave the way for Mr. Obama to bypass Congress if necessary. Climate change legislation is stalled in the U.S. Senate because of strong opposition from Republicans and some Democrats who argue that the proposed “cap and trade” system for carbon emissions will cost too much for industry.
More at Denmark’s host country website UN Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, 2009.
U.S. declares greenhouse gases health hazard (08 Dec 2009): news video report from Sebastian Walker of Al Jazeera’s English News.
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