Confronting Climate Change: A Strategy for U.S. Policy

With increasing attention to climate change in the presidential campaigns, as Congress tackles the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security bill, and as the world’s largest economies prepare to meet this summer to address global warming, a new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force explains what the United States must do to confront the challenge. The report, Confronting Climate Change: A Strategy for U.S. Foreign Policy, argues that the United States must creatively leverage ambitious action at home to advance an effective foreign policy. It proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement, while also promoting a new and less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world’s largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions. The report also provides recommendations on a host of controversial issues, including cap-and-trade legislation, international offsets, trade sanctions, biofuels, nuclear power, and assistance with adapting to climate change.