US President Barack Obama has declared the debate over climate change and its causes obsolete as he announced a wide-ranging plan to tackle emissions.
In a major speech at Georgetown University, Obama warned of the deep and disastrous effects of climate change, urging the country to take action before it’s too late.
“As a president, as a father and as an American, I’m here to say we need to act,” Obama said.
Obama said he was directing his administration to launch the first-ever federal regulations on heat-trapping gases emitted by new and existing power plants – “to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution”.
Other aspects of the plan will boost renewable energy production on federal lands, increase efficiency standards and prepare communities to deal with higher temperatures.
Even before Obama unveiled his plan on Tuesday, Republican critics in congress were lambasting it as a job-killer that would threaten the economic recovery.
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Obama dismissed those critics, noting the same arguments have been used in the past when the US has taken other steps to protect the environment.
“That’s what they said every time,” Obama said.
“And every time, they’ve been wrong.”
He touted the country’s strengths – research, technology and innovation – as factors that make the US uniquely poised to take on the challenges of global warming.
Obama also offered a rare insight into his administration’s deliberations on Keystone XL, an oil pipeline whose potential approval has sparked an intense fight between environmental activists and energy producers.
The White House has insisted the State Department is making the decision independently, but Obama said on Tuesday he’s instructing the department to approve it only if the project won’t increase overall, net emissions of greenhouse gases.
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“Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interests,” Obama said.
Obama also announced $US8 billion ($A8.69 billion) in federal loan guarantees to spur investment in technologies that can keep carbon dioxide produced by power plants from being released into the atmosphere.
But the linchpin of Obama’s plan is the controls on new and existing power plants.
Forty per cent of US carbon dioxide emissions, and one-third of greenhouse gases overall, come from electric power plants, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
The Obama administration already has proposed controls on new plants, but those controls have been delayed and not yet finalised.
The plan received a mixed response from Australia’s environmental think tank.
The Climate Institute has highlighted “some important strengths and some limitations” among Obama’s sweeping rollout of regulations.
“Obama’s climate adaption plans contrast Australia’s which have been, to date, limited and piecemeal,” Institute CEO John Connor said in a statement.
“Like the US, Australia needs to prepare for the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
“In the face of opposition of congress to a price and limit on pollution, the president has been forced to implement direct regulatory interventions and numerous processes to achieve the USA’s 2020 emission target.
“This has resulted in a raft of interventions as opposed to a more streamlined and economically-efficient carbon limit and price.”
Connor warned that Obama’s direct regulatory action may not prove sustainable as a long-term combatant.
“To achieve the deeper emissions reduction targets needed beyond (2020) the US, like Australia, will need stronger laws that price and limit carbon pollution,” he said.
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