H. TERMS AND DURATION OF THE PROJECT

The project is scheduled to commence in February 1997 and is expected to last until June 1998. The Task Force will provide periodic reporting to the Deputies' Climate Change Committee.

On February 12, 1997, the Council on Environmental Quality Management Fund Charter was signed for the White House Climate Change Task Force. The Task Force is chartered to coordinate and expand activities among agencies aimed at informing the public and interested parties about climate change and to build support for Administration policy and international negotiating positions.

This project Charter is hereby amended as follows:

C.

D.

H.

FINANCIAL PLAN

The Project anticipates an additional expenditure of $350,000 with funding provided by
participating agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of the
Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the
Department of State, and the Department of Commerce.

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

Kathleen A. McGinty, Chair, Council on Environmental Policy will co-chair the Task
Force with Gene B. Sperling, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and Todd
D. Stern, Assistant to the President for Special Projects. Other White House offices that
will participate include the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of
Management and Budget, the National Security Council, and the Council of Economic
Advisers. Other agencies participating in Task Force activities will include the
Department of State, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the
Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection
Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of
Transportation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, and the National Science Foundation. Other interagency processes that
will contribute to the Task Force include the Global Change Research Program and the
President's Commission on Sustainable Development, as appropriate.

TERMS AND DURATION OF THE PROJECT

The project commenced in February 1997 and is expected to last until December 1999.
The Task Force will provide periodic reporting to the Deputies' Climate Change
Committee.

APPROVED:

$/30/95

Date

thelley h. Diller for

Kathleen McGinty
Chair

Council on Environmental Quality

Q31. Please provide a list of all staff and members of the White House Task Force on Climate Change—including detailees from other Executive agencies, consultants, etc.-from its date of establishment to the present.

A31. Past and present staff representing executive agencies include: Dirk Forrister, Steve Seidel, Tom Peterson, Judi Greenwald, Paul Risley, Mary Washington, Lisa McNeilly, Andrew Kauders, Natalie Wymer, Bill Antholis, and Nicholas Lapham. No detailees from Executive Agencies were employed by the Task Force. No consultants were employed by the Task Force although two conference organizers/coordinators had contracts with the Task Force relating to the logistics for the White House Climate Change Conference and the Kyoto conference.

Post-Hearing Questions Submitted by Representative Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-MD)

Role of Nuclear Power in Reduction of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Q1.

Al.

It the Administration feels that carbon dioxide (CO2) production is such a menace to our society, why is it not more vigorously proposing an increase in the use of nuclear power production, since that produces no CO2?

The Administration included additional resources related to nuclear power as part of its
Climate Change Technology Initiative.

Global Warming

Q2.

A2.

Why does the Administration believe that the modest increase in mean global temperatures over the past century (about 1 degree) is not due to normal fluctuations in the Earth's climate, rather than signaling a permanent "global warming"?

A wide array of evidence indicates that the climate is starting to change outside the range of natural variability as a result of human activities. First and foremost, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv) prior to industrialization to over 360 ppmv at the present time. Human activities have also increased the concentrations of other greenhouse gases, including methane (by 145%), nitrous oxide (by 15%), and chlorofluorocarbons and their substitutes, which were once not present in the atmosphere. If emissions continue to grow at current rates, the level of carbon dioxide will exceed 710 ppmv by 2100. This would be the highest level since 50 million years ago.

Observations also indicate that the decade of the 1980s was the warmest on record, and 1997 has been the hottest single year. The nine warmest years of this century have occurred in the past 11 years, and the mean global temperature for the 20th century is at least as warm as for any other century since at least 1400 AD (which is as far back as global temperatures can be estimated with reasonable accuracy). In addition, the observed rate of global warming is more rapid than any seen since 1400.

There are also many additional pieces of evidence that are consistent with an enhanced greenhouse effect: the rise in sea level, the melting back of mountain glaciers, the retreat of Arctic sea ice, the deterioration of ice shelves in the Antarctic, lengthening of growing seasons, and widespread coral bleaching throughout the world. Careful studies are underway to determine to what degree these events can be associated with the changes in primary variables attributable to the enhanced greenhouse effect.

Furthermore, it is clear that humans are causing the change in climate. In late 1995, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Second Assessment
Report, which contained the statement that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is