Conclusion The Global Climate Coalition believes that command and control measures, such as targets and timetables, are unnecessary and should be avoided in any national action plan. The U.S. is the world leader in the global climate arena, as exemplified by the country's quick ratification of the Framework Convention and early release of the U.S. NAP, and by passage of the Clean Air Amendments of 1990 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Voluntary actions and legislatively mandated activities should be implemented before further costly, government programs are imposed on U.S. industry. Such a Moreover, the U.S. NAP should properly position the U.S. to fulfill its agreements under the Convention, particularly after implementation of the Energy Policy Act and other recent congressional and international mandates and initiatives. result will be unprecedented in the industrial world, as even the few other countries that have also issued national plans as the United Kingdom publicly concede that they cannot stabilize their greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2000 at 1990 levels.24 - such 24 Under the plan of the U.K., its emissions will rise from 160 MMTC in 1990 to 170 MMTC in the year 2000, 183 MMTC in 2005 and 221 MMTC in 2020. U.K. Department of the Environment, Board-Level (32) American Cement Alliance American Paper Institute American Electric Power Service Corporation American Mining Congress American Iron & Steel Institute American Petroleum Institute Association of American Railroads Association of International Automobile Manufacturers Atlantic Richfield Company Chemical Manufacturers Association CSX Transportation, Inc. Dow Chemical Company Drummond Company Du Pont Company Duke Power Company Duquesne Light Company Edison Electric Institute ELCON Illinois Power Company Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of the United States National Association of Manufacturers National Lime Association National Coal Association National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Ohio Edison Phillips Petroleum Company Process Gas Consumers Texaco, Inc. The Southern Company U.S. Chamber of Commerce Union Electric Company General Membership (22) Aluminum Association, Inc. American Commercial Barge Line Co. Amoco Corporation Arizona Public Service Company Armco, Inc. Bethlehem Steel Corporation BP America, Inc. Burlington Northern Railroad Carolina Power & Light CONRAIL Consumers Power Eastman Kodak LTV Steel Company, Inc. Midland Enterprises Nestle Norfolk Southern Pennsylvania Power & Light Company Portland Cement Association Railway Progess Institute Shell Oil Company Union Carbide Corporation 71-263 - 93 - 4 TESTIMONY OF Dr. Irving M. Mintzer University of Maryland, College Park Before the Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Trade and Environment Committee on Foreign Affairs U.S. House of Representatives My name is Dr. Irving M. Mintzer. I am a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Global Change. University of Maryland, College Park. The Center is an independent research unit of the University of Maryland, conducting policy-related research on issues affecting the development of the economy and the protection of the environment. I have been analyzing policy responses to the risks of rapid climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion for the last ten years. I have testified on these issues in the U.S. House and Senate, in the British Parliament, and in the European Parliament. I serve today as a member of the Scientific Working Group (WG I) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and of the new Cross-cutting Issues Working Group (WG III) of the IPCC. I am a co-author of the IPCC 1992 Scenarios of future economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions and Senior Editor of the recently published volume Confronting Climate Change: Risks. Implications, and Responses (Cambridge University Press, 1992). For the last two years I have been an invited observer in the deliberations of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Frainework Convention on Climate Change (INC). I attended the UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil in June 1992. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: Do We Know Enough to Act Wisely? During the last five years, the risks of rapid climate change have received increasing attent: among scientists and policy makers, from the press. the public. non-governmental organizations, and responsible leaders in the business comununity. Research on global environmental change in general, and on the risks of rapid climate change in particular, has increased dramatically both in the United States and elsewhere. As a result of extensive international cooperation in this research, scientists are now certain of several things. We know that the average global surface temperature has increased by about 0.5-0.7° C during the last century and that the ambient concentrations of a suite of heat-trapping gases are increasing in the lower atmosphere as a result of anthropogenic emissions that significantly exceed natural removal rates. A strong consensus has emerged in the international scientific community |