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Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 11/18/2008 11:30 AM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 11/18/2008 08:20 PM
Expires: 01/01/2013 12:00 AM
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Governor Schwarzenegger Opens Governors’ Global Climate Summit....Full Transcript of Speeches Enclosed
In Los Angeles today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger welcomes more than 800 attendees from more than 50 states, provinces and countries to the Governors' Global Climate Summit. Following the Governor's remarks, a pre-recorded video message will air from President-Elect Barack Obama on global warming and supporting the states that have taken decisive action to address this urgent issue.....
Click to Watch Video Here
The Governors' Summit brings together U.S. and international leaders to develop cooperative partnerships and promote collaborative actions needed to combat climate change. This forum also provides an opportunity for states and provinces to partner to reduce emissions, to grow their green economies and to influence the position their national governments take in the next global agreement on climate change.
The U.S. governors co-hosting and who will be in attendance at the summit are Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle.
"When California passed its global warming law two years ago, we were out there on an island, so we started forming partnerships everywhere we could," Governor Schwarzenegger said. "We teamed up with Great Britain, the Canadian provinces, the Western and Northeastern states and with states like those of my co hosts-Illinois, Florida, Kansas, Wisconsin and more. And right here, for the first time, we have officials from China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and across the world in the same summit, working toward the same goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and growing green economies in our own backyards."
"Florida's rapid progress has been possible only through partnership agreements with the United Kingdom and Germany, and with the help of my good friend, Governor Schwarzenegger," Florida Governor Charlie Crist said. "Progress comes only as we work together-not at the expense of future economic growth-but as a necessity for the future prosperity of all nations and states."
"This Summit is an opportunity to strengthen important relationships with business and government officials nationally and internationally and develop climate change strategies that will save us money, create jobs, help secure our world and improve our air and water," Wisconsin Governor Doyle said.
"There is an incredible opportunity here to get our nation's economy back on track by creating green jobs and becoming a world leader in the development of clean energy technologies," Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius said. "In Kansas, our farms and fields can produce tomorrow's energy through biofuels and clean, renewable wind. Rural America is going to play an important part in securing energy independence for our nation."
"Illinois has been a leader in the Midwest and nationally in developing innovative strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change," Illinois Governor Blagojevich said. "Playing a leading role in the Governors' Summit will give us a chance to meet with world leaders and to learn from each other about how to most effectively tackle this urgent global issue and accelerate the transition to a low carbon society."
The Summit emphasizes a "sectoral" approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions with sector-specific breakout sessions focusing on specific actions in the following industries: forestry; cement, iron, steel and aluminum; energy; and transportation. Together, these sectors account for the vast majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. This approach is considered a promising mechanism to support the actions of developing nations with technical and financial assistance from developed nations.
With representatives from the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters, this Governors' Summit provides an important forum to discuss solutions to meeting our mutual environmental goals while creating an economic advantage for states, provinces and nations that take early and aggressive action.
Showcasing the economic success of California's environmental leadership, the Governors' Summit will feature more than 30 clean-tech companies displaying innovative green technologies including electric cars, solar-powered flashlights and non-toxic cleaning products during the two-day Climate Solutions Showcase.
The following organizations are partnering with the Governors' Summit to make this collaborative opportunity possible: the Aga Khan Development Network, which is working to improve living conditions in the developing world through social and economic development, environment and culture; Climate Works; the RBF Foundation; the Sea Change Foundation; the Energy Foundation; the New America Foundation; Pacific Gas and Electric Company; the Pisces Foundation; BP America; Conoco Phillips; the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment/UCLA School of Law; FPL Energy; EcoSecurities; the Tremaine Foundation; APX; Applied Materials; SunPower; Fireman's Fund/Allianz Group; The Goldman Fund; Greenhouse Gas Services; Malcolm Pirnie; Mitsui & Co. (USA), Inc.; United Airlines and the University of California.
To ensure that the Summit leaves no carbon footprint, EcoSecurities is donating voluntary carbon offsets from its portfolio to neutralize 100 percent of the emissions associated with the event. The offsets being used are high quality voluntary emission reduction credits, selected to honor visiting country representatives, as well as highlight the first two agricultural methane projects listed by the California Climate Action Registry.
Visiting representatives will participate from more than 50 states, provinces and nations at the Governors' Summit, including leaders from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China, United Nations, European Union, Indonesia, Brazil and United Kingdom. The Summit brings together state and provincial leaders, national leaders, scientists, and representatives from business, academia and non-government organizations to forge productive partnerships to advance mutual goals.
This Summit helps fulfill the requirements of the state's global warming law, AB 32, to coordinate and collaborate with international governments to ensure compatibility, promote maximum environmental protection and promote economic stability. In addition, the proposed Scoping Plan, the state's blueprint to meet AB 32 reduction goals, addresses international efforts to encourage the spread of clean, low carbon technologies outside California.
University of California Television will offer a live webcast and subsequent archival video and podcasts of all events in the International Ballroom at http://www.uctv.tv/climate/. Several million people from around the world have been invited to watch the Governors' Summit live.
For more information, go to www.governorsglobalclimatesummit.org.
Full Transcript of Speech:
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Thank you very much. Thank you. And thank you very much, Linda, for the wonderful introduction and also for the extraordinary job that you are doing for the EPA. And I want to thank, of course, your entire team also for helping us put this conference together.
And I want to say thank you also to some other people here, because this is really extraordinary and it takes a lot of work to pull this together. I want to thank Secretary Mike Chrisman and everyone at the Resources Agency. Let's give them a big hand for the great work that they have done. (Applause)
And then, of course, Terry Tamminen and Bonnie Reese. (Applause) I want to thank them not only for pulling together this conference, but I also want to thank them for being such great advisors for the last five years since I have become Governor. I couldn't have done it without them, so a big, big thank you to them both.
And then also Will Fox, my deputy chief of staff, I want to thank him also for the great work that he has done. (Applause) And then Carl Bendix, who is, of course, the great visionary and created the stage setting and provides the food and everything. (Applause)
And all of our terrific sponsors, we want to thank, especially his Royal Highness the Aga Khan for his great contribution to this conference. (Applause)
And the our co-hosts, the governors -- I'm talking about Governor Crist of Florida and Governor Blagojevich of Illinois and Governor Sebelius of Kansas and Governor Doyle of Wisconsin. Let's give them also a big round of applause. (Applause)
And then, of course, I want to thank my wife and the greatest first lady, Maria Shriver, who is sitting right out here, for her great partnership and being such a great first lady. (Applause)
I'm telling you, talking about running a house environmentally sound, she is like the Gestapo in our house when it comes to the environment. It's fantastic to see that, the way she educates those kids and makes them also environmentalists. I love that.
But anyway, it is great and I want to say thank you all for coming here today. I want to welcome you all to the Governors' Global Climate Summit. This is a historic summit, I would say. And this is really amazing for me, because we had visions about something like that five years ago but we had no idea if we ever could get those visions to become a reality and I think that those visions are becoming more and more a reality.
And, of course, it was very difficult in the beginning. You can imagine, five years ago when we talked about that yes, you can protect the environment and you can protect the economy at the same time, there were a lot of doubters out there, there were a lot of cynics, a lot of people that didn't believe that.
And, of course, we fought all the way through and we, of course, knew that we were on the right track. And that's why, even though there was tremendous resistance in the beginning, we moved forward with our Tailpipe Emissions Standards and with our Green Building Initiative, with our Million Solar Roof Initiative, also building the Hydrogen Highway and Low Carbon Fuel Standards and all of those various different things.
Of course there were, like I said, people that didn't believe in it and they thought that we were going to hurt the economy. I still have friends in the business world that come to me and say that this is going to hurt the economy. But, of course, we believe very strongly that this is going to help the economy.
And I tell you, when we talk about facing obstacles, we also have faced obstacles on the federal level, with the federal government. And they were as enthusiastic -- especially when we passed AB 32 to make a commitment to lower our greenhouse gas emissions -- they were as enthusiastic about that as people were seeing my first movie, Hercules in New York. (Laughter) Which is a movie that went right in the toilet, just to show what the great enthusiasm was there.
But the bottom line is that I'm excited to report, however, that in January all of this will change because now there is a new administration coming in. And I will not talk much more about that, but this new administration is very much interested in adopting the same kind of regulations that we have adopted here in California, but I will get to that later on.
But in September of 2006, let me tell you, when I signed the nation's first law to cap greenhouse gas emissions, California was leading a revolution, but without any soldiers. We were out there alone and there was no other state in the United States that was doing anything similar to that. But we are used to that in California, because we are leading the way in so many other areas, if it is in entertainment and music, if it is in stem cell research, with our university system, it if is biotechnology, clean technology, nanotechnology and all of those things, we are leading the way. And so we also felt very comfortable in leading the way environmentally and flexing our muscles.
And so we moved forward and we created partnerships because, like I said, there was a lack of cooperation from the federal side, so we started going out forming partnerships with the western states and partnerships with the northeastern states, southern states and also with Mexico, with provinces in Canada and also with European nations. And those were really great partnerships with cap and trade.
And right here today is an example of how we evolved. And now we see all of these officials from China here today, from India, from Mexico, from Brazil, from Indonesia, Great Britain and the list goes on and on from around the world, at the same summit working together to achieve the same goals. So this is really huge, of how far we have come here.
And I know that all of you realize, of course, that we are here today to work very hard these next two days and not to just have an excuse to enjoy the California sunshine and to maybe do some surfing and go to Disney Land and all of those things. But we're going to work hard, because it's very important that we work hard, it's important that we push the envelope and it's important also that we reach for the stars here.
We will have important discussions here on everything from curbing deforestation to making sure that developing nations and the developed nations are all working together for mutually beneficial outcomes. That is what we're here for.
And we'll sign our Summit Declaration at the wrap-up tomorrow afternoon. That framework will help the negotiators next month in Poland and next year in Denmark, where they'll draft the sequel to the Kyoto Protocol.
So yes, our revolution now does have soldiers and it's spreading around the globe and I'm very happy about that.
And I want to say thank you to everyone here for coming here and to those also that are still on their way to come here today. This is going to be hard work that needs to be done and a lot of important panels need to be heard from and a lot of agreements that need to be signed. So let's roll up our sleeves and let's get to work. And again, a big thank you.
And now I would like to introduce a video that is from our President-elect Barack Obama, just to show to you that we are now in sync with this coming administration, so let's see it. (Applause) President-elect Barack Obama.
(VIDEO)
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA:
Let me begin by thanking the bipartisan group of US governors who convened this meeting. Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising, coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.
Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, if left unaddressed, will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our national security. I know many of you are working to confront this challenge. In particular, I want to commend Governor Sebelius, Governor Doyle, Governor Crist, Governor Blagojevich and your host, Governor Schwarzenegger. All of you have shown true leadership in the fight to combat global warming. We've also seen a number of businesses doing their part by investing in clean energy technologies.
But too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind of leadership. That will change when I take office.
(Applause)
My presidency will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process. That will start with a federal cap and trade system. We'll establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 percent by 2050.
(Applause)
Further, we'll invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private sector efforts to build a clean energy future. We'll invest in solar power, wind power and next generation biofuels. We'll tap nuclear power while making sure it's safe and we will develop clean coal technologies.
This investment will not only help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, making the United States more secure and will not only help us to bring about a clean energy future, saving the planet. It will also help us to transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating 5 million new green jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced.
(Applause)
The truth is, the United States can't meet this challenge alone. Solving this problem will require all of us working together. I understand that your meeting is being attended by government officials from over a dozen countries, including the UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Chile, Poland and Australia, India and Indonesia and I look forward to working with all nations to meet this challenge in the coming years.
Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather at Poland next month. Your work is vital to the planet. While I won't be president at the time of your meeting and while the United States has only one president at a time, I've asked members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there And once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.
(Applause)
Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious. Stopping climate change won't be easy and it won't happen overnight. But I promise you this. When I am president, any governor who is willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House.
(Applause)
Any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that is willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(END OF VIDEO)
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:
Well, I saw when you watched this video there were many times that you wanted to applaud for a long time on the various different things that our President-elect has said but, because of the video, you wanted to also hear what he said next. But I'm going to share that with him, your great enthusiasm here.
And, of course, I am very, very happy. This is so important for our country, because we have been the biggest polluters in the world and it is about time that we as a country recognize that and that we work together with other nations in order to fight global warming.
And so this administration will help us with that. This administration will adopt, as Barack Obama has just said, adopt our regulations and our laws and this is really fantastic, because we want to lead the way. And I can promise him and I want to thank him, first of all, for this great video that he has sent and also let him know that we in California here are ready to go and do everything that it takes in order to help his administration to follow through with his vision, with his environmental vision.
Thank you very much. You all have a great, great conference and I will see you again later on. Thank you. (Applause)
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