James L. Connaughton: Productive Harmony in Environmental Policy in the 21st Century

In this Policy Leadership Series, held on January 22, 2004, James L. Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, discussed the role of the executive and President have in the implementation of environmental policy and gave insight into how we can attain productive harmony.

James L. Connaughton was appointed by President Bush in 2001 to serve as chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In this capacity, he is the senior environmental advisor to the President as well as director of the White House Office of Environmental Policy, which oversees the development of environmental policies, coordinates interagency implementation of environmental programs, and mediates key policy disagreements among federal agencies, state, tribal and local governments, and private citizens.

Speakers

• James L. Connaughton, White House Council on Environmental Quality
• Paul Portney, Resources for the Future

Event Synopsis

CEQ Chief Connaughton Addresses Role of Developing Countries
in Setting World Climate Policy

Global policy to mitigate global warming will have to include the developing countries from the beginning, James. L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said on Jan. 22.

Connaughton spoke at a RFF Policy Leadership Forum at Resources for the Future.

If developing countries do not participate, he said, the climate regime will suffer "leakage"—the migration of industries to countries with no restrictions on emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol, a treaty signed by most of the world's governments but not yet in force, would put emissions limits only on developed countries. The Bush administration opposes the protocol.

Integrating the developing countries into an effective world climate policy is proving a major issue. Greenhouse gases are generated mainly by burning the fossil fuels on which modern industry runs, and many of the poor countries suspect that emissions limits are a ruse to hold back their rise to prosperity.

Connaughton suggested that the solution may be to address those countries' immediate concerns by linking ways to reduce air pollution, which has become a major health threat in many of the rapidly industrializing economies, with the longer-term plans to control greenhouse emissions.

He vigorously defended President Bush's proposal to use emissions intensity—the ratio of emissions to Gross Domestic Product—as the key measure of compliance. The Kyoto Protocol uses a country's total emissions as its basic measure. One of President Bush's reasons for opposing Kyoto is the difficulty, at least in the short-to-medium term, of reducing emissions without shrinking the economy that produces them.

Connaughton's comments on climate policy came in response to questions from the audience. His talk surveyed the environmental advances of the past 30 years. The administration believes, he said, that technical innovation promises more progress than litigation.