Climate change issue not going away in recession

President Obama’s announcement yesterday is the clearest indication yet that climate change will have more influence than ever before on national and international public policy in 2009. There was speculation, much of it around the European Summit in December, that tackling global warming would have to take a back seat to pulling the world out of a deep recession. Instead, Obama has presented the issue and the need for a ‘new energy economy’ as a massive opportunity for the United States, rather than a cost.

As usual, it was a masterpiece of presentation which has left Europeans wondering whether they will be left trailing behind the Obama administration on an issue where they have perceived to be leading for so long. Camilla Cavendish, a respected commentator from The Times of London, wrote today:

“Every clean-energy entrepreneur and venture capitalist should now be applying for a United States visa. Barack Obama's speech yesterday was not only a reversal of the White House position on climate change, accepting the science and warning of the risk of “irreversible catastrophe” if it goes unchecked.

It was also a clear statement of the economic opportunities that will come from building a low-carbon economy. That includes the jobs involved in insulating homes and making fuel-efficient cars, plus the huge competitive advantage in renewable technologies, which America will be able to export.”

The Economist, house paper for international decision makers everywhere, has also voiced its approval:

“Mr Obama has also sent a clear signal to Congress and the rest of America that he will pursue tougher environmental standards as several contentious issues loom. One is the introduction of a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, a piece of economy-wide regulation with a heavy impact that would require far more wrangling than this week’s executive decision. Another is whether, and how, America might join international efforts to cut carbon emissions, as the world looks for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.”

It will be interesting to see how European governments respond to the Obama climate change agenda. There was impressive-sounding news from the UK yesterday about a planned £22bn tidal wave project that could provide 5% of the UK’s electricity. However, we British don't have a great record on getting large-scale renewable plans off the ground. No less than eight years after it was first mooted, the London Array, which could provide one quarter of the city’s electricity from wind power, is still far from completion, and suffering from the withdrawal of major partners from industry.