[…] Forty years ago, Earth Day began in the United States as a “teach-in” – a day to educate people about the environmental challenges facing our planet. Today, we know more than ever about the challenges of preserving our environment – from clean water to climate change – and Earth Day has evolved into a call for sustainable solutions and local action all over the world.

[…] The new standards, established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation, will affect new cars that hit the market as soon as next year and gradually increase efficiency to 34.1 U.S. miles per gallon (14.5 kilometers per liter) by 2016. That will cap emissions at 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile, or per 1.6 kilometers.

[…] Increased population growth and the effects of climate change will cause nearly two-thirds of the world’s population to be living under water-stress conditions by the year 2025, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warns, and she says the United States is elevating the issue of water scarcity in its foreign policy not only to encourage more efficient use, but also to minimize future political conflicts as resources become more scarce.

[…] And I want to recognize the other speakers who are participating, including the congressman. You know Earl is a champion of quality of life issues, and I think when he started in the Congress he was a little bit of a lonely voice. But gradually, people have seen the connections between a lot of the big issues of the day that take up the headlines and the day-to-day concerns of how people live, how they interact, how they commute.

[…] Nearly 100 countries have signed on to the Copenhagen Accord, a nonbinding agreement crafted in the final hours of the U.N. climate change conference in December 2009, meeting the first official deadline of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat. The UNFCCC is the international agreement ratified by 193 countries to control emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) that drive climate change.

[…] These countries represent more than 80 percent of global emissions and this constitutes an unprecedented step forward in the global effort to combat climate change.
With that impressive statistic in mind, I’ll hand the podium over to Todd Stern, who has about 20 minutes to answer your questions.

MR. STERN: Hello, everybody. Pleased to be here today. I’m just going to be very brief at the top and open it up for questions for you all.

[…] The Copenhagen Accord does not go as far as many of us, including the United States, would have wished. But it still was a very significant step forward. For the first time, all major economies — including India and China as well as the United States and the European Union — have made commitments to curb greenhouse gas pollution and report on their actions and emissions in a transparent fashion. We believe this is incredibly important.

[…] L’Accordo di Copenaghen, con il quale si é concluso nella capitale danese, lo scorso dicembre, il vertice delle Nazione Unite sui cambiamenti climatici, è stato il frutto di un’intesa politica promossa da alcuni Stati (tra i quali Stati Uniti, Brasile, India, Cina e Sudafrica). È stato riconosciuto dalla gran parte dei paesi con una decisione che letteralmente "prende nota" della sua esistenza, ma non lo adotta formalmente.

[…] The Department of State has issued a Federal Register Notice today soliciting recommendations for nominations of experts as authors and reviewers for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC is an intergovernmental body that oversees the development of scientific and technical assessments of knowledge related to climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

[…] “We now have a Copenhagen Accord which contains a number of very significant elements,” an exhausted-looking Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said at the closing press briefing. He called it “an impressive accord,” but added that it was “not an accord that is legally binding.”

[…] We know the fault lines because we’ve been imprisoned by them for years. But here is the bottom line: we can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward, and continue to refine it and build upon its foundation.

[…] Thank you all for coming this morning. I arrived in Copenhagen several hours ago. I’ve just had a briefing on the state of the negotiations. I'd like to give you a brief report on where we stand and then make an announcement. First, let me thank Todd Stern and the terrific team representing the United States at this conference. Actually, they’ve been representing us ever since the beginning of the Obama Administration over this past year.

[…] In the second round of a new series of online debates, readers are invited to comment on the opinions of two climate change experts who exchanged opposite points of view on the future of nuclear power. The America.gov “Who’s Right?” series, which places readers in the middle of a friendly e-mail debate between experts on a complex issue.

[…] Today in Copenhagen, on behalf of President Obama, Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announced the Administration’s intention to commit $5 million towards international cooperation to reduce black carbon emissions in and around the Arctic.
Science shows that these emissions play a significant role in warming the Arctic and accelerating ice melt.

[…] By 2050, global food production will have to double from current levels to keep up with a hungry world, but the delicately balanced ecosystem that produces food in abundance is already under considerable stress as climate change erodes crop production, says U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This increased demand will have to be met under increasing water scarcity, heightened salinity, and more erratic weather and climate patterns,” Vilsack said at the international climate change conference held in Copenhagen.

[…] Secretary Clinton Calls for Broad Operational Agreement on Climate Change Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today urged international negotiators in Copenhagen to reach a broad operational agreement to combat climate change. In an op-ed published by the International Herald Tribune, the Secretary laid out a way forward that will promote sustainable development by moving the world toward a low-carbon economy.

[…] Our world is on an unsustainable path that threatens not only our environment, but our economies and our security. It is time to launch a broad operational accord on climate change that will set us on a new course.

A successful agreement depends upon a number of core elements, but two are shaping up to be essential: first, that all major economies set forth strong national actions and resolve to implement them; and second, that they agree to a system that enables full transparency and creates confidence that national actions are in fact being implemented.

[…] “As the two largest consumers and producers of energy, there can be no solution to this challenge without the efforts of both China and the United States,” Obama said November 17 in a joint statement with Chinese President Hu Jintao. During their talks, the two leaders made progress on the climate change issue, Obama said. Along with a series of joint initiatives on clean energy, China and the United States agreed to work together to make the Copenhagen conference a success.

[…] Warm thanks to the Kyoto Club for the invitation to come here. It is very appropriate to be discussing the climate challenge in the context of a clean technology event, because innovation in low-carbon technology is absolutely key to addressing the climate challenge.

[…] Human health ebbs and flows with the seasons, but the current confluence of extreme weather, global climate change and the shifting distribution of disease are driving the need for more active collaboration between climate scientists and public health experts. Meetings between health and climate experts have been increasing since early 2007, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirmed that Earth’s climate is changing and human activity is affecting that change.

[…] While President Obama has pledged a U.S. commitment to lead the campaign against the dangers of climate change through global partnerships, a complicating factor confronting such sweeping international efforts is the need to obtain approval from sometimes reluctant national legislatures. The United States Constitution authorizes the president to negotiate treaties with foreign governments, but stipulates that the U.S. Senate must ratify them with a two-thirds majority vote before they can become binding on the United States

[…] We are making our government's largest ever investment in renewable energy -- an investment aimed at doubling the generating capacity from wind and other renewable resources in three years. Across America, entrepreneurs are constructing wind turbines and solar panels and batteries for hybrid cars with the help of loan guarantees and tax credits -- projects that are creating new jobs and new industries.

[…] Il Presidente Obama ha affermato che gli Stati Uniti devono svolgere un ruolo di guida nell’azione mondiale contro i cambiamenti climatici. Siamo consapevoli che una soluzione a questo problema è impossibile senza una riduzione delle emissioni di gas serra da parte degli Stati Uniti e per questo intendiamo guidare il processo di trasformazione verso un’economia del XXI secolo basata sull’energia pulita.

[…] The common theme among nonproliferation, women in conflict, food security and climate change is that those types of issues “have an impact on real people” as well as on governments and have immediate impacts on security, says the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for International Organizations Esther Brimmer. The Obama administration has said it is pursuing a more multilateral approach to achieving its major foreign policy goals than its predecessor did, and Brimmer told America.gov that the main source for the new emphasis is the president himself.

[…] “Part of what we’re doing at the meeting is thinking about what end users need,” Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and head of the U.S. delegation to WCC-3, told America.gov. “Is it data, is it technical assistance, is it analysis and prediction, is it better communication of what’s known, is it decision-support tools? It’s probably all of that … but what are the priorities, what are the most urgent needs?”

[…] We, the leaders of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States met as the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in L’Aquila, Italy, on July 9, 2009, and declare as follows: Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. As leaders of the world’s major economies, both developed and developing, we intend to respond vigorously to this challenge, being convinced that climate change poses a clear danger requiring an extraordinary global response, that the response should respect the priority of economic and social development of developing countries […]

[…] Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, and Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School as well as a medical doctor trained in tropical public health, came together to discuss the situation at a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars event, “Healthy Solutions to Climate Change.”

[…] Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, and Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School as well as a medical doctor trained in tropical public health, came together to discuss the situation at a Woodrow Wilson International Center.

[…] The new standards, covering model years 2012-2016, and ultimately requiring an average fuel economy standard of 35.5 mpg in 2016, are projected to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the life of the program with a fuel economy gain averaging more than 5 percent per year and a reduction of approximately 900 million metric tons in greenhouse gas emissions. This would surpass the CAFE law passed by Congress in 2007 required an average fuel economy of 35 mpg in 2020.