President Obama's Climate Action Plan page 17I. Working with...

President Obama's Climate Action Plan page 17

I. Working with Other Countries to Take Action to Address Climate Change

Enhancing Multilateral Engagement with Major Economies: In 2009, President Obama
launched the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, a high-level forum that brings
together 17 countries that account for approximately 75 percent of global greenhouse gas
emissions, in order to support the international climate negotiations and spur cooperative action
to combat climate change. The Forum has been successful on both fronts – having contributed
significantly to progress in the broader negotiations while also launching the Clean Energy
Ministerial to catalyze the development and deployment of clean energy and efficiency solutions.
We are proposing that the Forum build on these efforts by launching a major initiative this year
focused on further accelerating efficiency gains in the buildings sector, which accounts for
approximately one-third of global carbon pollutions from the energy sector.

Expanding Bilateral Cooperation with Major Emerging Economies:
From the outset, the Obama Administration has sought to intensify bilateral climate cooperation
with key major emerging economies, through initiatives like the U.S.-China Clean Energy
Research Center, the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy, and the Strategic Energy
Dialogue with Brazil.
We will be building on these successes and finding new areas for cooperation in the second term,
and we are already making progress: Just this month, President Obama and President Xi Jinping
of China reached an historic agreement at their first summit to work to use the expertise and
institutions of the Montreal Protocol to phase down the consumption and production of HFCs, a
highly potent greenhouse gas. The impact of phasing out HFCs by 2050 would be equivalent to
the elimination of two years’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions from all sources.

Combatting Short-Lived Climate Pollutants: Pollutants such as methane, black carbon, and
many HFCs are relatively short-lived in the atmosphere, but have more potent greenhouse effects
than carbon dioxide. In February 2012, the United States launched the Climate and Clean Air
Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollution, which has grown to include more than 30
country partners and other key partners such as the World Bank and the U.N. Environment
Programme. Major efforts include reducing methane and black carbon from waste and landfills.
We are also leading through the Global Methane Initiative, which works with 42 partner
countries and an extensive network of over 1,100 private sector participants to reduce methane
emissions.