Hot August Day In Berlin: Press Roundtable Germany

Daniel S. Sullivan, Assistant Secretary for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs
Berlin, Germany
August 10, 2007

Press Roundtable in Berlin, Germany

PRESS ATTACHÉ ROBERT WOOD: Thank you for coming today. We have with us Mr. Daniel Sullivan, the assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs. Assistant Secretary Sullivan will make a detailed statement on the President's climate change initiative before taking any questions you might have. As always, if you could state your name and media organization we would greatly appreciate it. Secretary Sullivan, welcome.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Great turn-out on a hot August day in Berlin. None of you are on vacation right now, I guess, like the rest of the city. Great to see you. I’m glad we have a good turn-out.

I’m willing to talk about a number of issues but let me give you fairly detailed opening remarks because I think one of the things [...] is talking about on some of the climate issues and some of the follow-up from the G8. I’m in town to consult with the government here on the follow-up from the G8 and actually the US-EU summit, particularly regarding the G8 leaders’ endorsement of President Bush’s initiative on hosting a conference with major economies, with regard to addressing climate issues and seeking a framework - a long-term global greenhouse gas reduction goal in that framework - among the major economies by the end of 2008.

I was in Paris, in Brussels yesterday essentially doing the same thing. I had good meetings. I think the President sent out a letter last Friday, and what I was trying to do was add a little meat to the bones on what we are viewing, how this conference would work. The meetings, as I mentioned, yesterday [were] very supportive in terms of the overall tone for this conference among the government officials I met with, and I have a number of meetings today in Germany and will be doing the same thing in those meetings.

I want to underscore a few points. First of all, is on the climate issue itself. With regard to the President, right before the G8 had announced a major policy initiative by the United States, really with [inaudible]. But one of the key elements of this again was to work with the major economies on producing a framework by which there could be an agreed upon, long-term global greenhouse gas reduction goal. And what I want to do and what we are trying to do - there are a number of senior U.S. officials who are really working on this in a very intensive way – is consult with all of these economies. Right now one of my colleagues from the State Department, Under Secretary Paula Dobriansky, and the head environmental assistant to the President, Jim Connaughton, are in Asia right now, briefing and consulting with ministers from China and Japan. They will be heading to Indonesia as well and they will be through Europe.

But again, we are doing this because we want to underscore two things. First of all, the seriousness with which we take this initiative. I think some people have seen this conference as kind of a “one-off” conference. It’s not. It will be the beginning of a process by which we hope to work with the major economies to achieve this framework and greenhouse gas reduction goal. And that also how important it is to bring in these major economies. I think if you look at the G8 leaders’ statement, throughout the Heiligendamm statement there was an emphasis on the importance of these major economies. If you look at it]in terms of the projections, with regard to greenhouse gas growth - the projections are that anywhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the growth of greenhouse gas emissions will come from these developing economies -- not from the United States, not from the EU. So, having them as part of this process, we view as critical. And we also see that in some ways we feel that the United States can be uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between some of our European colleagues, friends and allies and some of these major economies. And I think, at the G8, the President spoke about this notion of a bridge in that regard.

I can talk about the goals here in a minute, but one thing I definitely want to emphasize: When the letters that the President sent out last week were reported on, I think a couple of newspapers ran articles about how we were starting a ‘rival process to the UN’, how this was ‘outside the United Nations’. That just is not correct and this is one of the points I have been making. If you look at the President’s letter - we can get you copies of that -- he clearly states that the work done here would be complementary to, supportive of, and feed into the work under the UNFCCC, and that is also what the G8 leaders agreed to. We are trying to just make that clear. I think there has been some confusion about that, but we want to reiterate that we see that is an important process because it has the major economies of the world.

I think if you look at the numbers that constitute anywhere between -- depending on how you do the measurement, 80 to 90% of all the greenhouse gas emissions would come from these 13 countries that have been invited. But also the importance of underscoring that this is not outside -- that we don’t view this as some kind of rival process, that this would, I can quote the President, that this “detailed contribution for a new global framework by the end of 2008,” that’s the goal “which would contribute to a global agreement under the UN framework convention on climate change by 2009.” Those are the words in the letter. Similar words were stated and agreed to by the G8 leaders.

Again, maybe I can get to a couple of other points, but in terms of what the conference will do -- at the initial meeting, which is now scheduled for September 27 and 28 in Washington, we again want to begin the process in principles by which the participants discuss arriving at a long term global goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Again, by the end of 2008, we have a very, very -- for those of you who are familiar with this issue - very, very ambitious schedule. We are looking at what we would term, what’s called a ‘bottom-up’ approach. One of the big elements of this conference will be for the different countries to lay out their national plans, their policies and objectives with regard to their greenhouse gas emissions, their climate policies or energy security policies, and their policies with regard to developing and deploying clean energy technology. So, what we will be trying to do, is looking at these across different sectors and looking at areas where there is commonality; looking at areas where there are potentially gaps and try to gain a common understanding, which I think could be improved among the different economies, because you are talking very different economies with very different policies with regard to climate change and energy security. And then similarly, related to that would be to explore and look -- getting consensus on common accounting methods and metrics by which to measure progress, by which to measure how you move forward in terms of progress. This, as I mentioned in some of my meetings here, is an area where I think the Commission particularly has a look of expertise, given that this is what the Commission has actually done in the European Union, across economies, across sectors -- looking at ways to measure metrics. And then possibly looking also at ways to explore and get consensus on cooperative approaches to key sectors, including transportation and power generation. And then, as I mentioned, setting out the process by which discussing the process, and the principles by which these major economies would move forward, to come up with a framework and a long-term goal by the end of 2008.

A couple of other points on this. One element that came -- you probably saw in the G8 leaders’ statement, is that we very much view this, and I think a lot of other countries would agree, that this has to be an integrated approach. So, you see in the President’s letter that he is mentioning the importance of having high level government officials, not only from the environmental sectors but also from those who focus on energy security issues; those who focus on economic issues, those who focus on finance. Because we think in addressing this issue you really need to have an integrated approach covering all these different disciplines and having ministries represented in that regard as well.

Let me just make a couple of final points and then I will be glad to take your questions. As I mentioned, we envision this as the beginning of a process by which we will be working together with these countries throughout 2008 intensively. I again want to underscore the commitment from everybody in the Administration to this issue and I think -- I want to just mention, kind of related to that, this is one of several trips that I have taken to Germany in the last several months -- as I mentioned being a Sous-sherpa for the G8 process. I have been here at least every three weeks since January, so I spent a lot of time in Berlin and other places in Germany. I happen to love this country and very much enjoyed all my trips here. Actually, my dad’s side of the family is German so I have a lot of ancestry here and everything.

But I did want to mention just one thing that I notice every time I came and that was -- whether sometimes in meetings, but a lot of times in the press -- this notion that in the climate realm you had the Europeans who, what I call -- and may be I should not say this if you are going to print this -- but kind of this sinner-saint dichotomy. Where you had the European approach, which was producing results and everybody here was very serious about climate. And that notion somehow that, particularly in the United States, there wasn’t a focus on it, nobody was serious about it; we were the laggards. I think… I don’t think, I know, that this is something I wanted to mention simply because I saw it every time I was in town, and we reject it. I think if you look at different elements of policy, different measurements -- this is that important issue of metrics and measurements by which to measure progress on climate change -- and then simply policies and speeches by senior officials in the United States, you can see that the administration of President Bush has been focused on this issue literally from the beginning of the Administration.

I am going to throw out a couple of statistics just to kind of put some facts behind what I am trying to say here. But in 2002 the President set out a goal to cut greenhouse gas intensity--so how much we emit per unit of economic activity -- by 18% in ten years, a very ambitious goal and we are clearly on our way to meeting that. Last year -- I think this is perhaps the biggest statistics I want you to least think about – in 2006, CO2 emissions in the United States declined by 1.3% and our economy grew by 3.3%. We did press on this and everything, it did not seem to get picked up but that is a really big deal. Declining greenhouse gas emissions and significant robust economic growth -- so that can be done. And then even between 2000 and 2005, our greenhouse gas grew by 1.6%, CO2 emission grew by 2.5%, while the U.S. population grew 4% and the economy grew 12.5%. I know I just threw a lot of stats at you, but the EU comparison during that time was essentially the same on greenhouse gas emissions: 1.4%; much worse on CO2 emission growth: 3.8% and much, much worse on economic growth and much less on population growth. These are stats, you can find them. I am not trying to say: we are doing great, you are not doing great.

But what I am trying to say is; there is a broad [area] of different policies and different metrics. And we have been very focused on that and our record is actually pretty darn good in comparison to a lot of countries over here. And so, I am only saying that now because you guys decided to take your August vacation and come meet with me, and I have this great audience, and I just wanted to thump the table one more time and throw these stats at you whether -- we have done it a lot -- they don’t seem to make the news much. But final point, I mean, so I can go into other areas -- what we spent -- 37 billion since 2002 on climate related initiatives, programs, partnerships, which is an enormous amount. But the key point I want to make, on a very positive note, is, like I said, different strategies for different countries. But I think we are very focused on this issue, as I know the government in Germany is. As I know many governments here are, and we think the key to addressing this climate challenge -- it is not incompatible with economic growth, I think we are starting to see that, and what it is essential and what this major economy meeting will be about, is making sure that all the major economies are going to be part of this process. And we think that was a theme coming out of the G8 and that is going to be a theme in that conference. And a final note again, on an upbeat note, having been part of the U.S.-EU process, part of the G8 process, I want to tell you I think across the board in the United States how much we appreciated, admired and [inaudible] the leadership of the German government from the Chancellor on down, both in terms of running a great G8 -- which we thought the outcomes of that were very good in a number of different areas -- and also a great U.S.-EU summit where there were significant achievements. And if you are interested we can talk about those.

I am sorry I took a lot of your time but I wanted to make that one point.

I am glad to take questions.

QUESTION: Thomas Krumenacher from Reuters. You reiterated that the American approach won't be a rival process to the United Nations and that it would feed into the UN process. Could you perhaps elaborate a little on how this will feed in? For example, we have the Bali conference in November [sic], is it conceivable that there will some proposals or some targets from this American conference?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, it's a very good question, and I think what one of the-- we're finalizing the agenda and, again, what I've been doing in Germany and Paris and Brussels is consulting with our key allies on this and on elements of the agenda -- but one elements, clearly of what the conference is going to begin --I mean, look, having gone through eight months of G8 negotiations I know how difficult it is to try and get countries who are relatively, economically in the same boat to agree to certain goals with regard to climate, it's a difficult process. This is also going to be a challenging process, but what the September conference will do is, it will focus on setting out that process, and principles by which the major economies work to establish a framework by the end of 2008, and that long-term reduction goal, a global goal. So I think there's going to be a lot of focus at the September conference on that very issue and how exactly that's going to play into the UN process, but I think the most important thing that we're trying to reiterate now and we're doing it at every venue -- and like I said, it's in the President's letter, it's in the G8 statement -- is that this is not a rival process. We think that, look, when you get the major economies -- look, when you get 85 to 90 percent of the emitters in the world, if they could, you get them to move forward with a common agreement, I think that that's very helpful for the broader UN process, that would be very helpful.

QUESTION: Christiane Meier, ARD German Television. I was wondering if you were hoping for any kind of commitment from these countries at the your meeting, and if not so, is there any commitment the United States is going to give to the future, because so far, if I remember correctly, everything was on a very vague basis, so there's nothing concrete nor concrete results?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, I think the commitment, what we're trying to achieve, is to get a commitment among these major economies to -- if you remember, one of the issues at the G8 was whether the G8 countries were going to commit at the G8 to a global reduction goal, to a long-term global reduction goal. From our perspective, it made more sense to make sure that not only the G8 was doing that, but the major economies were doing that, so I think that the commitment that we hope to get out of this is a commitment by all the countries to agree to that kind of long-term reduction goal. That would be a major commitment. Again, the process will begin in September. There's not, I mean, the likelihood of a somehow in two days, of us coming together on an agreement on a commitment like that, but we will begin the intensive process to get there.

QUESTION: Why does the United States think that this process is necessary, because the Bali conference has been scheduled and the countries are prepared? So I've never quite understood why this sudden involvement happened and why this should change the equation?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, I think part of the reason is, when you look at the countries who are the major emitters, to bring them in a group that's -- to bring them to try and get agreement -- we think having the major economies involved is essential, the major emerging economies. And as I mentioned earlier, we thought that we could play a really important role in bringing them together to do that. So that, is that it? Maybe I don't understand your question?

QUESTION: Maybe I should clarify. What can Bush do that that the United Nations cannot do?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, as I mentioned earlier, as the President stated at the G8, this notion of being placed in a way to bring together our European friends and allies and the major economies, I think that's a role we think we can play well and I think, to be honest, that's a role that a lot of other countries believe that we can play well. And I think when you have the key countries involved in a process that, again, will feed into the UN process -- but we think we can get a lot of work done with that group moving into the process under the UN convention.

QUESTION: Rolf Büllmann, German Public Radio. Two questions. Could you tell me exactly who's going to take part, which countries, at the conference in September? And do we know on which level these talks will take place?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, that's a very good question, and that's part of what we're doing in terms of consultations. Let me -- we can actually provide you with materials, and even the letter if you want, it's on the White House website. But what the President has asked in the letter is that a personal representative from each of the leaders of the countries attend to lead their delegation, and that can be at the choice of the countries. In my meetings, we've been suggesting, again, very senior level participation, that's what we are hoping for, and it can be anything from a minister level to chef de cabinet at the chancellery, for example, or other very senior officials as the personal representative of the leader of the country. And then also we -- and again it's in the letter -- we'll make sure you get that -- have suggested that in addition, there be officials from across different ministries. So, as I mentioned, environmental, economic, energy; and so again, those would be as part of the delegations, also at a very senior level, we're hoping. And so I've been having these discussions, but it's obviously going to be up to the different countries. As the President notes in the letter, Secretary Rice, my boss, will be hosting the event, but there will be participation in this event from a number of U.S. cabinet officials. I'm certain that Secretary Bodman, our Secretary of Energy, probably Secretary Paulson, some others, will be participating, and the President also plans to address the conference and participate. So, from the U.S. side, very senior involvement. The President's personal representative is Jim Connaughton, and he's named in the letter, he's the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality at the White House, a very senior White House official. You want me to read these? Yeah, sure. It's the United States, the European Union -- with also personal representatives from essentially the EU, G8 countries -- Japan, China, Canada, India, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and the United Nations have been invited.

QUESTION: Dave McHugh, AP. It's not a binding, long-term global goal or a mandatory long-term global goal. I see here in one of the docs there is a review process that assesses each country's performances? What kind of review process, is it "name and shame," or how will, what kind of review process?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: That's a very good question, and these are some of the principles by which we think this will be useful; but, again, this will be something that will be discussed at the conference. I think with regard to that review process, there's a view that one potential way to, again, build from the bottom up is look at national policies and plans. Obviously, those are binding, right? Countries' national policies are -- we have many mandated policies with regard to environment and climate and energy security issues and CAFE standards and things like that. So there will be, what we are anticipating is looking at, with regard to some of those national policies, a pledge and review. And what form that's going to take still remains to be seen; but I think that, as you mentioned, there's a lot of different ways that you can have different countries reviewing what other countries are doing, and it can be very effective in terms of making sure commitments are abided by. With regard to…, well, I think that's all I want to say on that one.

QUESTION: Mathias Brüggman from Handelsblatt. With whom will you meet here in Germany?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Let’s see. You know, a lot of my colleagues are on vacation, so I'm glad I've even got some meetings. Let me see, I had a meeting this morning at the Chancellery with Dr. Peter Rösgen and one of his colleagues. I'm meeting later this afternoon at the Ministry of Economics and Technology with the state secretary, Dr. Joachim Wuermeling, and with Viktor Eibling, the head of the international economic policy division at the MFA, I think.

QUESTION: Konard Mrusek from the Frankfurter Allgemeine. Coming back to the word ‘goal’. What does it really mean, because Kyoto wasn't ratified by America because there was a figure in it? America didn't want to have a figure. Right now, is American prepared, after 2012, to have a figure in the post-Kyoto? Is it really mentioned in the -- because I don't really understand. What do you really mean by emissions intensity? I think it's different from what you just mentioned.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: But, again, I mean, you can make a good argument that emission intensity looks at -- that's part of the reason that we think that talking about measures and metrics is very important, to get a common understanding. But I think with regard to, for example, the long-term global reduction goal, you see that in the G8 leaders' statement there was a discussion of seriously-- as we do this process -- of seriously considering what the European Union has agreed to by 2050, Canada, Japan. Now, you're the -- you write about these issue a lot, but I think that you can ask your colleagues who has set those goals. In many ways those are aspirational goals, right, so, and as I mentioned, at the national level, countries like Germany, countries like the United States, have all kinds of mandatory required goals. I think it's a very important question, because -- and I think what the September conference will do -- we’ll begin looking at the principles and process by which we reach those, by which we will agree to that long-term global reduction goal, and so, you know -- would it be, I mean, I know I'm not supposed to ask the questions here, but I mean, the long-term goals that have been already been put out, are those mandatory? Is the EU 2050 goal, halving greenhouse gas emissions, is that aspirational, is that mandatory? I'm actually not 100 percent sure. I don't think a lot of people are sure, to be honest. But, clearly, looking at the principles behind what we, all of these economies, intend to achieve by that goal will be an important part of beginning the process which will take place at the September conference.

QUESTION: Maybe I missed this, but talking about a long-term global goal to reduce greenhouse gases, would it necessarily be a reduction in emissions or could it be some other way of measuring it, as you mentioned…

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: As the intensity?

QUESTION: How much you crank out per unit of change.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: I think, generally, it would be a reduction in, I mean, our goal, our stated goal, has been to slow, stop and reduce emissions. But, in terms of policies and goals, there are different ways of looking at that. We do think having the economic component of the discussion as an important aspect of some of our national policies, as I mentioned at the outset. The President's goal, set in 2002, of 18 percent greenhouse gas intensity reduction, has that economic measure of unit in it. And we think that's actually an important element because, again, one of the messages that came out of the G8 is that addressing the climate change problem and challenge does not, and should not, equate to having to create a downturn in your economic growth. As a matter of fact, there's a -- we believe that having a strong economy actually helps because it helps developing the technology and the deployment of the technology that's going to be critical to addressing the challenge.

QUESTION: Did I get you right that you don't expect from the September conference a clear figure of a reduction goal? You just want to (inaudible) ?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: I think the vision, what we would hope to get out of it is to begin to look at the principles and process of coming to an agreement on that goal. If for some reason -- well, I don't even want to go there -- I think that's how we envision this initial conference. But again, I think there was some, the conference was a bit misconstrued. Our vision of this conference is that this is the beginning of a process that's going to be an intensive process throughout 2008, and, again, I think it's reflected in the President's letter, that that's the vision we have.

QUESTION: At the end of this process, in 2008, there will be a figure you want to commit to reduce?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Agreed to by these countries, we hope so.

QUESTION: And is there any figure that you have in mind that would be sufficient to stop global warming?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, I think that from a U.S. perspective, the last statement in terms of the numbers is what was in the G8 statement -- that we will seriously consider what has already been put on the table by other countries -- Canada, Japan, the European Union. I think that's in -- I'm sure it's in the statement somewhere.

QUESTION: So this means 50 percent by 2050 and …?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, I don't want to get into numbers right now, but I think that from a U.S. policy perspective and thinking on that issue, that was the last kind of publicly stated view on it.

QUESTION: Christian Wulf, ARD German Television. You talked about instruments. One of the instruments can be an emissions trading system. Some states are already building up trading systems, and Europe, the EU, tries to link it now with a European trading system. Do you think there is any chance to install a global trading system with the members you stated will attend the conference?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, again, I don't want to prejudge what would come out of that conference. I think our view right now, the Administration policy, is that we have not been supportive of a global trading system at the current moment.

QUESTION: Why not? Because it would be an economic instrument?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Well, we think that there's -- that, I mean, from the U.S. perspective, in terms of domestic approaches, you know, we've done -- in sectors of our economy, the sulfur dioxide issue -- we've, you know, instituted those kinds of systems before. But I just think that right now, the policy of the administration in terms of supporting that --. we're not there.

PRESS ATTACHÉ ROBERT WOOD: Okay, unfortunately we're going to have to leave it here. Thank you all for coming. Secretary Sullivan, thank you very much.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Okay, thank you. Enjoy your vacations (laughter).

Released on August 21, 2007

ENDS

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