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President Clinton & Vice President Gore Speak Out On Climate Change Fact sheet released by the White House Climate Change Task Force October 1999

During 1999, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have spoken out time and time again on global climate change. A few of their remarks follow:

"Our most fateful new challenge is the threat of global warming. 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded. Last year's heat waves, floods, and storms are but a hint of what future generations may endure if we do not act now. Tonight I propose a new clean air fund to help communities reduce greenhouse and other pollution, and tax incentives and investments to spur clean energy technology. And I want to work with members of Congress in both parties to reward companies that take early, voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gases."

               --President Clinton, January 19, 1999, State of the Union Address

"President Clinton and I are proposing significant new investments in fiscal year 2000 to accelerate our aggressive, common-sense efforts to meet the challenge of global warming...That is why President Clinton and I are proposing a record $4 billion for expanded research and other programs to better understand and protect our climate, and for tax incentives for consumers and businesses to purchase energy efficient cars, homes, and appliances."

               --Vice President Gore, January 25, 1999, On Climate Change Budget Proposal

"We must do more to meet our most profound, common global environmental challenge, the challenge of global warming. I have proposed a clean air partnership fund to help communities reduce both greenhouse pollution and smog, as well as tax and research incentives to spur clean energy technologies. I want to work with members of Congress in both parties to reward companies that take early, voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gases."

               --President Clinton, March 4, 1999, U.S. Interior Department 150th Anniversary

"I am directing all federal departments and agencies to take steps to markedly improve the energy efficiency of our buildings. With new technologies and contracts with private companies, the Federal government will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent. That is the equivalent of taking 1.7 million cars off the road. By taking these steps, we will also save the taxpayers over $750 million a year when they are fully implemented."

               --President Clinton, June 3, 1999, Issuing Federal Energy Efficiency Executive Order

"For American families and consumers this legislation will mean lower energy costs and the potential for new economic opportunities. For our nation, it will mean more jobs, more innovation, increased competitiveness, and greater energy security. And for our environment, the gains in energy efficiency will mean better air quality and fewer emissions of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming."

               --Vice President Gore, June 29, 1999, On Introduction of Administration's Energy Efficiency Tax Incentives Into Congress

"The evidence of global warming grows stronger every day, yet Congress is trying to strangle common-sense programs that save energy, save consumers money, and reduce global warming pollution. I urge Congress to work with us, not against us, to meet the challenges of climate change."

               --Vice President Gore, August 2, 1999, Releasing Declassified Arctic Images to Help Research on Global Warming

"I'm establishing a Cabinet-level council to develop strategic plans to help to bring bio-based technologies from farms, forests and labs to the marketplace...In addition, I am setting a goal of tripling America's use of bioenergy and bio-based products by 2010. That would generate as much as $20 billion a year in new income for farmers and rural communities, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 100 million tons a year-the equivalent of taking more than 70 million cars off the road."

               --President Clinton, August 12, 1999, Issuing BioEnergy Executive Order

"One of the big ideas the world has to abandon is the idea that the only way to build a modern prosperous economy is with the industrial energy use patterns of a former era. It is not true."

               --President Clinton, September 12, 1999, Auckland, New Zealand

"The overwhelming consensus of world scientific opinion is that greenhouse gases from human activity are raising the Earth's temperature in a rapid and unsustainable way. The five warmest years since the 15th century have all been in the 1990s; 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded, eclipsing the record set just the year before, in 1997. Unless we change course, most scientists believe the seas will rise so high they will swallow whole islands and coastal areas. Storms, like hurricanes, and droughts both will intensify. Diseases like malaria will be borne by mosquitoes to higher and higher altitudes, and across borders, threatening more lives-a phenomenon we already see today in Africa."

               --President Clinton, September 15, 1999, Auckland, New Zealand

"All of us, developed and developing countries alike, should take action now to halt global climate change...Does this mean developing countries then must sacrifice growth to protect the environment? Absolutely not...The challenge and opportunity for developing countries is to skip the cost of the Industrial Age by using technologies that improve the economy and the environment at the same time."

               --President Clinton, September 21, 1999, UN General Assembly

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