嘿嘿视频

GLOBAL CLIMATE SUMMIT: Katehi urges national strategy to inspire change and courage

At Jackson Hall and the Global Pavilion
Flash slideshow

Photos by Karin Higgins/嘿嘿视频

(free)

, and said 嘿嘿视频 is doing the kind of environmental research that can help lead the world to sustainability.

鈥淚t is time for a national strategy that will inspire change and courage,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t is time for this global movement to have the federal government as a true believer, partner and driver.鈥

She spoke to an estimated 1,200 people at the opening session of the Governors鈥 Global Climate Summit 3, which concludes today at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Click for the live webcast.

Watch video, including tropical forest advocate Harrison Ford.

鈥淟eaders lead in crisis,鈥 Katehi said in her welcoming address. 鈥淎nd it is time for the United States to claim its place in this global fight against climate change 鈥淭he world is watching. And many of us are acting. Right now.鈥

Schwarzenegger is among those leading the charge and acting at the subnational level 鈥 states, regions and provinces.

鈥淟et us forge ahead and build a great new coalition dedicated to our cause,鈥 the governor said in his opening remarks. 鈥淚 know that together we can usher in a new era and build a cleaner and brighter and more prosperous future, so I say let鈥檚 do it.鈥

Turning the scientific community loose

The summit鈥檚 opening session began with excerpts from the documentary film Climate Refugees, about people whose land is being lost to climate change 鈥 for example, a rising sea level that in one case threatens a South Pacific island nation, Tuvalu, population about 12,000.

Climate Refugees is not about an abstract concept,鈥 Katehi said. 鈥淚t is about real people whose lives are being devastated by real change.鈥

鈥淎nd that is why we are here today, to find solutions, before it is too late.鈥

Such problem solving will take money, of course, which is where former Secretary of State George Shultz stepped in with his call for 鈥渟ustained and strong support for research and development in the area of energy.鈥

鈥淚鈥檝e been around it enough myself to know, there are game-changers out there,鈥 Shultz said in his address during the opening session. 鈥淵ou turn the American scientific establishment on to this subject in a big way, they鈥檒l think of things that nobody鈥檚 thought of. They鈥檙e not tweaking the present way we do things, but think of entirely different ways to go about it, and I can see some, right there. So let鈥檚 make that kind of a commitment.鈥

Schwarzenegger and other subnational leaders are seeking a different kind of commitment 鈥 by national and international leaders to agree to work together on climate change.

That was the goal last December at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, or COP 15, to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. 鈥淭here was a tremendous buildup going into Copenhagen,鈥 Schwarzenegger said. 鈥淪ome pundits described it as the most important world conference since the end of the Second World War. Yet, as we all know, it failed to produce a binding international agreement.

鈥淏ut, as I always said, as they move forward and start working on and hopefully get, eventually, a binding agreement, we should do our work, the subnationals should do their work.鈥

Schwarzenegger and other leaders point to their subnational successes, to show national governments what can be done.

鈥楾his is people voting鈥

California, for example, touts Assembly Bill 32, the landmark Global Warming Solutions Act, which just this month emerged victorious from what Schwarzenegger described as 鈥渁n epic drama, an epic battle. 鈥 A battle of old versus new, a battle of David versus Goliath.鈥

Shultz took the stage still basking in the AB 32 victory. Two weeks shy of his 90th birthday, he raised his clenched fists and successfully exhorted the audience to join him in a 鈥淣o on 23鈥 chant 鈥 referring to the Nov. 2 ballot measure that would have delayed AB 32鈥檚 implementation.

Shultz chaired the "no on 23" campaign, which scored a margin of victory of 22 percentage points and carried the day in every age group, every ethnic group, among men and women 鈥 and even in conservative San Diego County.

鈥淭his is people voting,鈥 the veteran diplomat said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 different from politicians arguing and deciding this or that. This was a vote, head-on.鈥

Katehi said California voters, by rejecting Proposition 23, 鈥渞eaffirmed their commitment to cutting-edge climate change solutions.鈥

She expressed pride in California鈥檚 鈥渟trong-as-steel backbone and its crystal-clear vision.鈥 She added: 鈥淗ere at 嘿嘿视频, we share this commitment, this determination and this vision. We are in the fight for a clean future.鈥

The chancellor introduced Schwarzenegger by saying that his action hero movie roles had prepared him well for his new status as a 鈥渃limate action hero 鈥 someone with the courage to upset the status quo, someone with the muscle to create groundbreaking policies. And someone with the stamina to fight the powerful backlash, such as Prop. 23, when the status quo tried to undo climate-change accomplishments.鈥

Schwarzenegger said California as a whole showed strength in the Proposition 23 battle. 鈥淭he (Texas) oil companies flexed their muscles, and we flexed back,鈥 he said.

After Copenhagen, he said, the 鈥渂ig polluters and the special interests and their lobbyists鈥 probably threw a party to celebrate 鈥 thinking that they had brought the environmental progress to a screeching halt.

鈥淭he only thing is, I wouldn鈥檛 celebrate too much if I would be them. Because those people clearly have not been here, at this university, and attended this summit here, and seen of all our work,鈥 he said.

鈥淭he truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that the green revolution is moving full speed ahead, with or without the international agreement. We are moving ahead, and we are doing our work.鈥

Forests give way to family survival

Another action hero, Harrison Ford, joined Schwarzenegger on the stage, commending the governor as 鈥渁 committed environmental leader.鈥

鈥淲ith climate progress stalled at the federal and international levels, California has once again become the environmental trendsetter, this time for climate change and forest conservation,鈥 Ford said.

The Indiana Jones star voiced particular interest in the latter. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen the plight of the world鈥檚 tropical forests and the people who depend on them for their survival,鈥 said Ford, who is a longtime board member of Conservation International. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen impoverished farmers who are forced to clear their forests because that is the only means available to them to feed their families, even though they know it will bring them hardship tomorrow.鈥

He said the process of deforestation 鈥 the burning and clearing of land for agricultural or other purposes 鈥 accounts for about 16 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than from all the cars, trucks, buses, trains, planes in the world combined.

Conserving Earth鈥檚 last remaining forests, he said, is the quickest and most efficient means of addressing climate change. Forest preservation can also deliver a host of other benefits, 鈥渇rom supporting some of the poorest people in the world, who are sustained by these healthy ecosystems, to saving animals and plants, the biodiversity that鈥檚 threatened with extinction.鈥

鈥淏ut if we don鈥檛 seize the opportunity now, we will lose these precious forests, and we will lose the battle against climate change.鈥

First regulatory market

California鈥檚 AB 32, Ford said, will create the world鈥檚 first regulatory market for greenhouse gas reductions coming from the protection of tropical forests. 鈥淭his is a beginning, a way to start providing the payments so desperately needed by indigenous people, local communities and governments in the developing world, who want to protect their forest and the critical services they deliver, but need our support to do so.鈥

In addition, he said, AB 32 establishes a model worthy of being replicated by other climate policy makers around the world.

Which is Schwarzenegger鈥檚 goal. 鈥淏ecause I know that in our countries and in your local governments and in your states and provinces, you have similar challenges,鈥 he told the summit audience. 鈥淲hen the economy is down there is often pressure to sacrifice the environment.

鈥淲ell, I've said it many times, that you can protect the environment and the economy at the same time. I hope that our success here in California encourages you to fight back when you have those challenges, to keep fighting and keep fighting and fighting, because the science is on our side, the economics are on our side and the people are on our side.鈥

More information

, 9:30-11:45 a.m. and 1:30-3:30 p.m. today (Nov. 16)

Transcripts: and

(Katehi, Schwarzenegger, Ford and Shultz)

Earlier coverage: (Nov. 15, 2010)

Earlier coverage: (Nov. 5, 2010)

Earlier coverage: (Nov. 3, 2010)

 

 

Media Resources

Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu

Primary Category

Tags