July 24,Climate Change Science Program 2003
Announcing the 10-Year Strategic Plan in Washington, DC
Remarks by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham

Two years ago, President Bush created the Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration to coordinate the government’s multifaceted approach to climate change. Secretary Evans and I have the honor of sharing the Chairmanship of the Committee on a rotating basis.

The committee’s work is divided into two project lines – the Science project line and Technology project line. Both are interconnected and complementary.

Scientific research that leads to a better understanding of climate change serves as the basis for the more precise development of new technology. The development of altogether new technologies, in turn, sparks new scientific understanding and breakthroughs.

With that in mind, today, we are adding another important dimension to our ongoing work with the announcement of our 10-Year Strategic Plan for the Science Program.

Secretary Evans will discuss the Strategic Plan in detail in just a moment, but I’d like first to point out that, even as we advance our Science Program, we also continue to advance our Technology effort. The year 2003 has already seen the launching of several exciting new initiatives. Let me mention just a few:

• Last January, in his State of the Union message, President Bush announced a bold plan to develop a new automotive fuel – hydrogen -- and associated infrastructure. Cars fueled by hydrogen will emit no greenhouse gases. Not only that, they will emit virtually no pollutants and contribute to our nation’s energy security by reducing our reliance on imported oil.

• We have committed a total of $1.7 billion over five years for research and development work on both the hydrogen fuel initiative and the associated FreedomCAR initiative to perfect hydrogen fuel cell technology for the American passenger car fleet.

• To broaden our hydrogen effort further, last month we signed an agreement with the European Union to collaborate on hydrogen research. We hope to further increase international involvement when the United States hosts an International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy. Ministers from a number of interested countries will convene in the United States in November to officially establish the new Partnership.

• The transportation sector has great potential for the reduction of greenhouse gases, but it is not the whole story. Science and technology present us with tantalizing possibilities for reducing or eliminating greenhouse gases produced while burning fossil fuels to generate electricity.

Carbon sequestration, or the capture and permanent storage of produced carbon dioxide, has rapidly grown in importance to become one of our highest clean coal priorities.

We are currently working with private sector partners on 65 carbon sequestration projects around the country, and participating in two international projects. We have increased our carbon sequestration budget by 60 percent.

• Carbon sequestration’s potential is so great that the State Department and the Department of Energy last February announced a Carbon Sequestration Leadership Initiative to help unite interested governments on the development of carbon sequestration technologies. Last month, at a ministerial-level Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum here in Washington, more than a dozen nations, plus the European Union, formally joined us in this U.S.-led cooperative effort.

• At the same time we announced the Leadership Initiative, we also announced another highly significant development in the field of carbon sequestration. The Department of Energy, with private sector and international support, has embarked on a $1 billion, 10 to 15 year initiative to design, build and operate the first coal-fired, emissions-free power plant.

When operational, this plant - which we have named FutureGen - will be the world's cleanest, full-scale fossil fuel power plant. Using the latest technology, it will generate electricity, sequester greenhouse gases, and provide a new source of clean-burning hydrogen.

• We also have rejoined the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project, or ITER, to explore the revolutionary potential of harnessing fusion, the sun’s process for transforming matter into energy, to generate emissions-free energy later in this century.

• Federal spending related to climate change now totals $4.5 billion a year. And these new initiatives, alone, will constitute over $5 billion in research over the next five to 10 years.

In short, we are already engaged in an active, aggressive and multi-pronged campaign to address climate change. We have made important progress in a comparatively short time, and we are bringing together bilateral and multilateral international coalitions to address these challenges. So, even as we embark on an expansion of our Science program, we are making rapid progress on the technology side.

And, thanks to tools such as the 10-Year Strategic Plan, we will continue to make rapid progress. The Science Program will find the answers to the many unanswered questions about climate change, and identify the most promising areas for investment in future technology research and development.

The Plan reflects a commitment to high-quality science as the guide to our climate change activities, and I am pleased to announce that the plan has attracted the strong endorsement of the directors of the nine Department of Energy national laboratories with a role in Climate Change Science. The directors say the Plan “…provides a sound, science-based framework for addressing, in a timely way, some of the most complex scientific challenges and problems that our nation and the world have faced.” I couldn’t agree more.

To explain in detail what the Science Program and the Strategic Plan are, and what they are intended to accomplish, I‘d like now to introduce Secretary of Commerce Don Evans…

Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan