Obama victory signals rebirth of US environmental policy
President-elect Obama will shred the Bush administration's energy policies and introduce a major climate change bill in an attempt to bring the US back into the international environment fold according to his senior advisers.
Obama talked of the "planet in peril" in his acceptance speech — a clear reference to climate change. He will now send his own energy representatives to the UN's climate change talks in Poznam, Poland, in three weeks' time.
He is also expected to announce a goal of reducing US greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and then cutting them by 80% by 2050. This will be via a cap-and-trade system with carbon permits auctioned off to industries to encourage them to reduce emissions.
The initiative would match Britain's ambitious 80% target by 2050 and would see the US overtake Europe, which is committed only to a 60% cut in emissions by the same date
The election result was greeted ecstatically by US environment groups.Rodger Schlickeisen, the president of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, said: "For the first time in nearly a decade, we can look to the future with a sense of hope that the enormous environmental challenges we face will begin to be addressed and that our air, land, water, and wildlife — and the overall health of our planet — will not be sacrificed to appease polluting industries and campaign contributors.