Obama hopes to work with India to combat climate change

Chicago, Nov 19 (PTI) Promising a USD 15 billion annual
catalyst investment fund to build a clean energy future,
President-elect Barack Obama has sought help from countries
like India to launch a "new era" of global cooperation to
combat climate change.

"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," Obama said in
a surprise video message to a bi-partisan Governors' Global
Climate Summit in Los Angeles.

"Too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind
of leadership. That will change when I take office."

The Democrat, who had made climate change a major issue
in his historic run for the White House, said his
administration will start with a federal cap and trade system.

"We will 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 per cent by 2050," he said.

The US will invest USD 15 billion annually to catalyse
private sector efforts to build a clean energy future, Obama
said.

"The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear.
Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking," he said and
pointed out that Washington alone cannot combat climate
change.

"The truth is, the US cannot meet this challenge alone.
Solving this problem will require all of us working together."

Obama noted that the US delegation to next month's UN
Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland would also have a
chance to meet government officials from over a dozen
countries there, including the UK, Canada and Mexico, Brazil,
Chile, Poland and Australia, India and Indonesia.

"I look forward to working with all nations to meet this
challenge in the coming years," Obama said, promising to
"vigorously engage" in future negotiations.

Obama also conveyed a "special word" to the delegates
from around the world who would attend the meeting in Poland,
saying that their work was "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," said Obama, who is scheduled to be sworn-in as
the 44th US President on January 20, 2009.

"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," he said.

"Any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating
climate change will have an ally in the United States of
America," Obama said, emphasising that a delay in responding
to the threat of global warming was no longer an option.

"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. It won't happen overnight," he said.

Obama told US Governors that climate change and America's
dependence on foreign oil, if left unaddressed, will continue
to weaken the US economy and threaten its national security.

He noted that many American industries have committed
investments to combat the effects of climate change.

This investment will not only help the US reduce its
dependence on foreign oil, it will also help transform
American industries and steer the country out of the economic
crisis by generating five million new green jobs that pay well
and cannot be outsourced, Obama said.