America Is Serious about Climate Action Global Support for a New International Consensus Is Key to Success at Copenhagen By Andrew Light, Julian L. Wong, Kari Manlove, and Saya Kitasei 1 President Barack Obama and the United States’ leadership in the upcoming U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen will be instrumental to a successful outcome. The United States is the world’s largest historical and per-capita emitter of greenhouse gases. We cannot hope to meet the goal of limiting increases in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius without U.S. participation in a new international convention to limit carbon pollution. Getting to that agreement will require an unprecedented level of international cooperation. Yet the United States’ notable inaction on climate change for eight years under the Bush administration has left a legacy of mistrust. President Obama has reversed this course and reoriented us in a new direction. Since taking office just 10 months ago he has assembled an all-star green cabinet that fully grasps the science of climate change and the urgency it brings, including Nobel Prize laureate Steven Chu as secretary of the Department of Energy, and one of the most respected climate scientists in America, John Holdren, as the president’s chief advisor on science and technology. President Obama has also used his executive authority to begin implementing a series of measures to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, pushed the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation, and elevated climate change to a top priority in the United States’ international diplomacy agenda through bilateral and multilateral forums. 1 Andrew Light is a Senior Fellow, Julian L. Wong is a Senior Policy Analyst, and Kari Manlove is a Research Associate at the Center for American Progress. Saya Kitasei is a Sustainable Energy Fellow at the Worldwatch Institute.