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Bloomberg urges US to show climate leadership

19 February 2008

The US must set real and binding targets for cutting its carbon emissions, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, has told the United Nations General Assembly.

As part of a bid to cut carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, the mayor said the city was converting taxis to hybrid vehicles, planning congestion pricing, building more energy-efficient buildings and has launched the ¿one million tree¿ planting programme, to tackle climate change.

Speaking at the opening of a UN debate on climate change, Mr Bloomberg said: "The United States, which leads the world in greenhouse gas production, must finally set real and binding carbon reduction targets.

"As long as there is no penalty or cost in producing greenhouse gases, there will be no incentive to meet such targets. And for that reason, I believe the US should enact a tax on carbon emissions."

Highlighting the task before humanity in tackling climate change, he said: "Terrorists kill people. Weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill enormous amounts of people. Global warming, long-term, has the potential to kill everybody."

Sir Richard Branson called for the formation of ¿an environmental war room¿ to support research into carbon extraction from the atmosphere.

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