IPCC Report Highlights Urgent Need for Congress to Put a Cap on Carbon Pollution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Bill Chameides, Environmental Defense, 212/505-2100
Tony Kreindler, Environmental Defense, 202/572-3378, 202/210-5791

(Washington – April 6, 2007) Leading international scientists today offered new hope for fixing the climate problem in a report that says we can avoid the worst impacts of global warming if we act now to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the early effects of global warming are happening faster than most expected and we could cross dangerous tipping points if emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue unabated. But the IPCC report suggests the sooner we act, the lower the risk will be for crossing the line where catastrophic changes become irreversible.

“The grim future predicted by the world’s most respected climate scientists can be avoided if we start now to cut emissions by about 2 percent a year,” said Bill Chameides, chief scientist at Environmental Defense. “The best way to address the climate problem – the only one that guarantees the reductions we need – is to put a real cap on emissions.”

Without prompt action, the effects of business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions will threaten billions of people worldwide, IPCC said today. The longer we wait, the sharper the cuts will have to be, adding not only economic strains, but also reducing the likelihood that we will be successful.

According to the IPCC, the effects of inaction could include:

• More deaths, disease, and injury from heat waves, storms, and droughts
• Increased flooding in heavily populated coastal areas
• Food and water shortages for hundreds of millions of people
• Extinction of up to 30 percent of species globally

Experts say a temperature increase of just one degree Fahrenheit over the warming expected from the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere could take us to the tipping point. Those same experts say we can help avoid crossing that threshold by cutting U.S. emissions by about 80 percent from current levels by 2050.

Environmental Defense is urging the U.S. Congress to create a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, an approach that sets enforceable emissions reduction requirements and lets companies and the market find the most effective and efficient ways to meet them.

“If Congress unleashes the cash and creativity of the private sector with a cap-and-trade system, America can lead the world in a low-carbon technology revolution to meet the climate challenge,” said Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp.