The State of Climate Change Science 2007, Part 3
Opening Statement By Chairman Bart Gordon
Good morning and welcome to the Committee’s third hearing on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report.
On May 4, the third Working Group released the Summary of its chapters on the Mitigation of Climate Change in Bangkok. The Summaries of Working Groups one and two released earlier this year indicated that both adaptation and mitigation strategies are needed to counteract the effects of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
Adaptation strategies can lessen the impacts of the changes in climate we are experiencing now and that we will experience under any scenario in the future. However, the IPCC reports tell us that if we are to avoid the dangerous impacts of climate change associated with global temperature increases of 4 degrees or higher, we must develop and implement mitigation strategies.
Working Group three’s report outlines specific measures that we can consider to design a path to stabilize, and then reduce, greenhouse gas emissions. Some are policy measures, others are technological. Not surprising, the report counsels that the earlier we begin the better chance we will have of achieving the goal of avoiding dangerous impacts of climate change.
Of course, we are all concerned about the costs of achieving this goal. As we all suspect, this effort will be costly and the estimates of these costs vary considerably depending upon the assumptions used in the economic models to generate them.
However, inaction is not cost-free, either in monetary terms or in human suffering. Longer, more intense droughts, increased flooding, and accelerated sea level rise are all very costly. Increased public health problems and increased migration of environmental refugees are also very costly.
While there will be costs, there will also be benefits and opportunities for new jobs and new industries. We simply cannot afford the costs of inaction, especially when we consider our need to move to new energy future to achieve greater national and economic security.
The Summary does not point to any single policy or group of technologies that will achieve emission reductions. Each nation and each region must participate in a global effort to reduce emissions by developing strategies that will work within their respective economic and social frameworks.
We must do for the U.S., the types of analyses performed by the IPCC on a global basis, to understand the costs and benefits associated with alternative mitigation policies and technologies.
Time is the one thing we can never recover. We have an opportunity, if we act now, to avoid radical alterations in our world that we will be unable to adapt to or overcome. We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to face the challenge of climate change and deliver them a future that is as energy secure as the one we inherited. We can only accomplish that by diversifying our energy supplies and becoming more energy efficient.
We have an opportunity to lead the world in a cooperative effort to make sustainable development not just a goal, but a reality. The sooner we begin, the better off we will be.
We have a distinguished panel of witnesses here this morning to discuss the options for mitigating climate change. Welcome to all of you, and thank you for being here today to discuss this important topic with the Committee.
Witnesses
Panel
3 - Dr. Steven Plotkin
Lead Author (Chapter 5: Transport and its Infrastructure) IPCC Working Group III IPCC Working Group III
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1 - Dr. Mark D. Levine
Coordinating Lead Author (Chapter 6: Residential/Commercial) IPCC Working Group III IPCC Working Group III
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2 - Dr. William Pizer
Lead Author (Chapter 11: Mitigation from a Cross-Sectoral Perspective) IPCC Working Group III IPCC Working Group III
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4 - Dr. Roger Pielke
Professor, Environmental Studies Director, Center for Science and Technology Policy Research University of Colorado Director, Center for Science and Technology
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