FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 1, 2010
CONTACT: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384
Nations Reaffirm Copenhagen Accord Commitments
Quadrennial Defense Review Also Highlights Climate Change
Washington, D.C.--Yesterday, January 31, marked the deadline for countries to submit their desire to be associated with the Copenhagen Accord and their associated national plans to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. A large number of countries representing the vast majority of the world's emissions--including the U.S., Brazil, India, China, South Africa, and Indonesia--reaffirmed the commitments they made in Copenhagen.
Today also marks the release of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, which discusses the strategic implications of climate change for the first time ever. The Sierra Club offered the following comments in response to these developments.
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director
"Thanks to President Obama's personal leadership, the world's nations came together last December around the Copenhagen Accord. It's a very positive sign that they have now recommitted themselves to what was agreed to in Copenhagen. While the process and the result were certainly imperfect, the Copenhagen Accord is still a very important step forward. It's now essential that everyone, especially the United States Senate, also recommits themselves to doing the hard work necessary to secure a fair, ambitious, and binding international climate agreement at the Cancun meeting in November.
"While China is already halfway around the track in the race to dominate the clean energy industries of tomorrow, the U.S. is still lacing up its shoes. Congress now needs to do its part to show that America is ready to lead. With millions of Americans still out of work, it's time for the Senate to get serious about passing bipartisan, comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. In addition to slashing our dangerous dependence on oil and creating millions of new jobs, clean energy legislation will restore American industry, rebuild the middle class, and rescue our economy by putting it back on a path to long-term, sustained prosperity.
"In another reminder of the national security and international implications of climate change, the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review highlights the risks posed by climate change for the first time ever. While the Pentagon's report considers the longer-term risks of climate change, we can't escape the fact that each and every day we continue to send $1 billion a day overseas to buy oil--much of it from hostile nations. It's time we started spending that money to create jobs here at home."
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More details on the Copenhagen Accord and national action plans can be found at:
http://www.usclimatenetwork.org/policy/copenhagen-accord-commitments
The Quadrennial Defense Review and other information can be found at:
http://www.defense.gov/
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