DURHAM, N.H. – Two University of New Hampshire climate change experts are available to comment on President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, announced today in a speech at Georgetown University.
Stacy VanDeveer, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who researches climate change and environmental policy, can be reached at [email protected] and 781-321-5880.
“The plan is extremely ambitious and quite comprehensive. Its scope and stringency will be limited by Congressional inaction and/or opposition, but the plan does demonstrate that many things can be done through executive orders, environmental protection regulation, and executive branch organizations and initiatives. It also offers a huge number of goals for environmental activists to use to try to hold the administration and the government accountable,” VanDeveer said.
“It is filled with language about working with and learning from the many state and local initiatives around the country, where a lot of innovative things have been happening, and it is the clearest signal ever from any president and from the federal government more broadly that all U.S. public, private and civil society actors must prepare for much needed adaptation to climatic changes that are happening now and coming in the future,” he said.
Cameron Wake, research associate professor of climatology and glaciology, leads a research program investigating regional climate and environmental change with a focus on the northeast United States, the Arctic, and central Asia. He can be reached at [email protected], 603-862-2329 (office), or 603-498-9486 (cell).
“Federal leadership on dealing with climate change has been a long time coming. Obama’s new plan begins to address two key strategies – reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to those climate changes that we have already committed to because of the inertia in the Earth’s climate system,” Wake said.
“And while critics will roll out the same old ‘job killing’ language they have been using for years, we will need to separate the tyranny of the ‘or’ for the opportunity of the ‘and’. It is about the environment and the economy. Developing renewable energy technologies, improving our energy efficiency, and making our cities and towns more resilient can and should serve as the foundation for our future economy. For example, of the 67 recommendations included in the 2009 NH Climate Action Plan provided, detailed analysis shows that almost all of the recommendations are both good for the environment and good for the economy,” he added.
The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.
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