In his second inaugural speech, USA president Barack Obama has promised that his administration will respond to the threat of climate change.
In his speech, delivered yesterday in Washington D.C., Obama promised that the United States will commit to climate change, “knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”
The election of Obama comes as a relief to international climate change cooperation, however, it remains to be seen how Obama’s words will be translated into policy, warn EU experts.
In his speech the US president also issued a thinly veiled critique at climate change sceptics, saying that “some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.”
The latest of these storms was Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States in October 2012, causing an estimated $65.6 billion in damages in the US alone and killing at least 253 people in seven countries along its way.
“The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise,” added Obama.
You can read the whole of Barack Obama’s climate change dedication below:
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.
The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise. That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure — our forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
Picture: facebook.com/barackobama
