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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2, FEBRUARY 1989

NEWS...
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE NEW ADMINISTRATION

Item #d89feb2

Several recent policy recommendations aimed at the George Bush administration include global climate concerns. Blueprint for the Environment, prepared over the past year by task forces representing more than 50 environmental organizations, contains some 700 specific recommendations to the new administration on all environmental concerns including atmospheric pollution. It urges the President to make global warming a top priority of domestic and foreign policy by following through with his pledge to convene a global environmental summit, and through international initiatives such as reducing carbon dioxide and halting deforestation. Other recommendations involve energy policy and efficiency, acid precipitation, and the formation of a new Department of Environmental Protection.

Project 88: Harnessing Market Forces to Protect Our Environment, prepared by contributors from academia, industry, and environmental and policy groups, was released by co-chairs Sen. Timothy Wirth, a Colorado Democrat, and Sen. John Heinz, a Pennsylvania Republican. It recommends six policies to counter the greenhouse effect: research on prevention and adaptation; energy efficiency and alternatives to fossil fuels; offsets of new greenhouse gases through trading; debt-for-forest swaps to prevent tropical deforestation; international trading in greenhouse gases; and improved population policies. It also endorses the market-based approach proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for implementing the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, advocating a system of tradable permits and several other policies. Energy efficiency and other environmental problems are also addressed by Project 88, which was supported by foundations and other private sources.

The American Agenda, a temporary, bipartisan group headed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, issued a general policy document. The environmental section was prepared by Alvin Alm, a former deputy administrator of EPA, who also headed a recent review of its research program. (See following news item.) President Bush should elevate global warming as a major priority and pursue international agreements to cope with it. Also recommended are the creation of a Department of Environment and promotion of energy conservation.

The Heritage Foundation has released Mandate for Leadership, authored by policy and legislative experts, many of whom served during the Reagan administration. The chapter on environmental policies concludes that environmental protection should be achieved through free-market economic incentives because they often achieve environmental goals more effectively than can bureaucratic control. Such approaches could be applied to greenhouse gas emissions and ozone-depleting substances. It recommends nuclear power as a clean source of energy, and various market approaches to energy policy.

See REPORTS, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Feb. 1989, for ordering information. Energy Policy Statement: A Call to Action for the Next President and Congress, by the Environment and Energy Study Institute, also deals with global warming and was summarized in Global Climate Change Digest, REPORTS, Dec. 1988.