Addressing Global Climate Change
The policy challenge is to act in a serious and sensible way, given the limits of our knowledge. While scientific uncertainties remain, we can begin now to address the factors that contribute to climate change.
President George W. Bush
Discussion on Global Climate Change
June 11, 2001
President Bush is addressing the complex and important issue of global climate change with an
ambitious strategy: slow the rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and then, as the science
justifies, stop and then reverse the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.
In February 2002, the President affirmed his commitment to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change and its central goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas
concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate
system.
The Presidents strategy includes several bold initiatives that incorporate scientific research,
technological innovation, and international cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while
strengthening the economy. Through public-private partnerships, the President is working with
businesses to encourage voluntary, cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions. The President is
also investing in carbon sequestration technologies and practices that can capture carbon dioxide from
fossil energy systems or the atmosphere, and store those greenhouse gases in forests, plants, and soils,
or in geologic reservoirs underground.