On January 24th, The Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP) delivered a State of the Climate report to the White House in advance of last month’s final State of the Union address delivered by George Bush. PCAP is an initiative at the University of Colorado Denver to create a 100-day climate action plan for the next President of the United States. The Center for American Progress has also been formulating plans for the next president. If, as appears to be the case, the next President will be Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain, it seems certain that any of these three will pay more attention to climate change and these recommendations than the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Calling climate change “the most dangerous and difficult challenge of our time,” the assessment goes on to call out the United States for standing alone among developed nations in its lack of action. It also points out the threat that climate change poses to national security, economic stability, public health and safety. It is interesting to note, as the report does, that the connection between the greenhouse effect and climate change, as well as burning fossil fuels leading to global warming, date to the 1860s and that American scientists began expressing concerns about climate change in the 1950s.

The assessment looks at the positive developments over the last year; the IPCC reports, the new energy bill passed by Congress and the general focus in universities, NGOs and research institutions on solving the climate crisis. They also point to the 780 mayors, representing over 77 million Americans, that have signed on to the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, thereby agreeing to cut emissions by at least the amount required by the Kyoto Protocol. They also point out the number of corporations that are recognizing the need to address climate change as a positive development, as well as the focus on global warming in the 2008 presidential campaign. (Here I would differ with them. In countless interviews with all the candidates, the words climate change never passed Tim Russert’s lips until the last debate, though he did ask about UFO sightings and Halloween costumes during previous debates. The political media has been terrible in terms of asking questions and making this an issue. The candidates themselves, particularly on the Democratic side, have been far better at including climate change and clean energy in their stump speeches.)

On the negative side, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to grow. In the US, weather has become more extreme, as have wildfires and droughts. Snow pack is diminishing and vegetation and migration patterns are shifting while pests and weeds are thriving. And while this is going on, the US continues to lag behind Japan and Europe in terms of reducing emissions, while at the same time, falling below Japan and Europe in key quality of life indicators. So all of these emissions aren’t even getting us a better life in the short term and are damaging our prospects for the medium and long terms.

The report makes 11 key recommendations including linking national climate policy to national energy policy, recognizing climate change as a national security issue, protecting our natural resources such as forests, leading by example, breaking the grip of special interests on our technology and research and more. The state of the climate report ends with this:

If this is our defining moment, then let us be known as a people of courage, morality, vision and goodwill – a people who gladly accept the responsibility of ensuring that the America of tomorrow is even better than the America of today. That commitment to the future is required of us if we wish to keep faith with those who founded our nation, with those who have sacrificed for it and with those around the world who look to the United States of America for hope.