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It is clear that no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.
Climate change is not just harmful to the environment; it threatens our property, transportation,
comfort, and overall quality of life. The National Security Strategy, released by the White House
in February 2015, noted that “climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national
security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic
resources like food and water.”
We know that it would be unconscionable to condemn our children to a planet that is beyond their
capacity to repair. Fortunately, we have the means – the technological edge and the scientific
imagination – to begin the work of fixing it right now. Rapid advancements in clean energy,
energy efficiency, and low-carbon energy technologies are already creating jobs, stimulating
investment, and spurring innovation – proving that a sound environment is the best foundation for
strong sustained economic growth. Moving to a low-carbon economy is creating new industries
and unlocking cleaner forms of affordable and reliable American-made energy. That is why more
than 1,200 businesses – including Apple, Microsoft, GM, Nike, Intel, and Starbucks – have
declared that “tackling climate change is one of America’s greatest economic opportunities in the
21st century.”
The pace, magnitude, and ultimate costs of climate change can be greatly reduced by taking a
range of common-sense steps that are within the reach of individuals, communities, and nations.
And we are acting now. An analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisors found
the cost of hitting a specific climate target increases, on average, by approximately 40 percent for
each decade of delay in taking action. In other words, when we wait to act on climate change, it
comes at a huge price.
On the domestic front, we have made real progress in advancing the goals of the President’s
Climate Action Plan. To reduce our greenhouse gases, we have put forth common-sense carbon
pollution standards for power plants, announced a solar jobs training program for veterans, and
permitted five utility-scale renewables projects on public lands. We have forged partnerships with
industry to phase down HFCs, cut energy waste, and deploy more renewable energy, and we have
taken important steps to address methane emissions in the oil and gas sector. Today, we harness
three times as much electricity from the wind and more than twenty times as much from the sun
as we did since President Obama took office. By the middle of the next decade, our cars will go
twice as far on a gallon of gas, and we have made unprecedented investments to cut energy waste
in our homes and buildings, saving consumers billions of dollars in the process.
In collaboration with our State, Local, and Tribal partners, we are implementing a wide range of
steps to enhance the resilience of the nation to the impacts of climate change. We are working
across the Federal Government to modernize programs to support more resilient economic
development. We are using sound science to help manage climate impacts. And we are rebuilding
resiliently from past natural disasters, while enacting changes to better protect our neighborhoods
for the future.
President Obama is taking important steps to act on climate, but cannot meet this challenge alone.
The only solution is a global solution. That is why we are working with other nations to advance
cleaner energy technologies, enhance energy efficiency, promote best practices to reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions, and aid developing countries in increasing their own resilience to
climate change. In 2009, President Obama made an international commitment to reduce U.S.