COUNTDOWN ΤΟ KYOTO, PART I: THE SCIENCE OF A GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT,
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m., in room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ken Calvert, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Chairman CALVERT. This hearing of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee will come to order.
Eight weeks from now, 169 nations, including the United States, will meet in Kyoto, Japan, for the third conference on climate change sponsored by the United Nations. There the United States will be under pressure to sign a treaty mandating cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions over the next 20 years. Such a commitment could have a profound effect on the economic growth we are enjoying today, while allowing other nations who will not sign the treaty, such as China, to gain an economic advantage over the United States. Even the most recent report on this matter issued by the Department of Energy last week, said only by raising the price of energy through the increased taxes could we come close to meeting the expected targets. Before we take this step, we should be sure that there are compelling reasons to do so.
The foundation for this treaty is the belief that human influence on the Earth's climate will be responsible for a warming trend over the next 150 years, that this is harmful, that it must be stopped and that, in fact, it can be stopped by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Today, we will explore the state of the science behind this assertion, our ability to predict the impact human action will have on the Earth's climate, and what research should be pursued to reduce uncertainties.
At our second hearing on Thursday, we will explore the differing opinions regarding the economic impact of the proposed treaty.
There will be no attempt at these hearings to prove that the Earth's climate is getting warmer, cooling, or staying the same; although there have been many opinions about that in the last 20 years. We know from thousands of years of climate history that change is the order of things.