GTFS: Global Trends and Future Scenarios Index

Obama’s New Climate Policy

[PDF] [MORE INFORMATION]

Hopes of fresh momentum in the international climate negotiations were high when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States on November 4, 2008. Even during the election campaign, he had announced plans to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, to increase the percentage of renewable energies in the energy mix 25 percent by 2025, and to set up a national emissions trading system. It seemed then that 2009 would be a banner year for climate protection in the US: not only did the House of Representatives pass a comprehensive climate bill in June, the EPA and the Department of Transportation also issued a number of new regulations. The US also returned to the table to join serious multilateral negotiations on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.