US State Department report makes case for climate action

A draft report from the US State Department has emphasised the urgent need to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that human activity is unequivocally leading to global warming and that rising temperatures pose a grave threat to the global economy.

The 193-page draft report is the fifth study to be produced for the US for submission to the UN's climate change secretariat and was released to little fanfare earlier this month.

However, a group of environmental organisations this week sought to highlight the conclusions contained in the report as they attempt to drum up support for the proposed US climate bill that is due to be released next week.

The Project on Climate Science, a non-profit organisation supported by the Natural Resources Defence Council, the World Wildlife Fund, and the United Nations Foundations released a statement on the US Climate Action Report underlining some of the stark warnings contained in the government-backed report.

It highlighted the report's conclusion that climate change is happening, and is already causing consequences for human well-being in the form of more heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires. It predicted grave effects on water resources leading to droughts similar to those already being experienced in the western United States.

"Sea level rise and storm surge place many US coastal areas at increasing risk of erosion and flooding, especially along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts," the report warned. "Energy and transportation infrastructure and other property in coastal areas are very likely to be adversely affected."

According to the report, total US greenhouse gas emissions will increase by roughly 18 per cent between 2010 and 2050, reaching 8,400 megatons per year by the middle of the century unless urgent action is taken to curb emissions.

The document will be open to public comment until May 6, and will then be submitted to the United Nations by the US government. As such, it carries significant political weight, and comes just days before the expected release of a compromise climate bill crafted by Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman.

The report is the latest in a series of moves from the Obama administration designed to lay the groundwork for what promises to be a highly controversial campaign to secure the Senate votes necessary to pass the climate bill. Earlier this week, President Obama said that passing the climate bill would become his top priority as soon as banking reforms that are expected to be finalised over the next few weeks are completed. Meanwhile, White House energy adviser Carol Browner told a conference yesterday that she firmly believed that passing a climate bill ahead of November's mid-term elections was now "doable".

However, further changes to the bill are likely to be required to secure cross-party support and nine Senate Democrats considered key swing voters on climate change legislation last week asked the three senators behind the bill to increase support for the manufacturing sector. They delivered a letter signaling their intent to vote in favour of the legislation in exchange for key concessions including assistance for retooling and clean energy manufacturing and support for research and development in low carbon industrial technologies.

In related news, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced earlier this month that the State Department would step up its support for the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), increasing funding for a number of low carbon projects across the region including plans to bolster renewable energy capacity in the Caribbean and establish new standards to ensure that biomass fuel comes from sustainable sources.