Obama Aims To Slash Greenhouse Gas Emissions

We think this goal can be hit without pulling back on economic growth. Personally, professionally, we've experienced dramatic declines in energy use and carbon output.  And, we believe we can improve upon this performance and eclipse those achievements.

A lot or progress can be made through efficiency.  Part of making ambitious goals like these take historic changes in human behavior;  which means we all become very savvy consumers.  If we are mindful and vigilant in contemplating our actions on our environment, we'll make some very smart decisions.  In doing so, we'll save money and live a better quality of life.

We look forward to meeting or exceeding these goals here in the US.

“Climate change is real, it is being driven by human activity, and it is not a problem any one country can solve on its own,” Obama's senior advisor Brian Deese said.

(TRNS) — President Obama on Tuesday announced his pledge to the United Nations that the U.S. will slash its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 percent by 2025 in what he’s hoping will be a substantive contribution to a major international climate change agreement.

Brian Deese, a senior advisor to the president, made the announcement Tuesday morning, saying that with the progress made last year in China when the world’s two largest economies “surprised the global community by jointly announcing their plans to combat one of the biggest threats facing the world this century,” would be continued through the announcement.

“That’s a big deal, because truly global challenges demand global solutions. Climate change is real, it is being driven by human activity, and it is not a problem any one country can solve on its own,” Deese wrote.

Deese characterized the goals of up between 26-28 percent of emission reduction from 2005 levels as “ambitious and achievable,” adding that “the goal will roughly double the pace at which we’re reducing carbon pollution through cost-effective measures using laws already on the books.”

The Obama administration will tackle this issue on two fronts, using EPA rules that are already aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions as well as the expansion of the use of clean energy.

“It’s past time we heed these warnings. It’s past time for the world to take action. Under President Obama’s leadership, the United States is doing our part to take on this global challenge,” Deese said. “It’s time for other countries to do what the United States, Mexico, and the E.U. members have done and submit timely, transparent, measurable, and above all ambitious targets for cutting carbon pollution and building lower-carbon economies to the UNFCCC.”