Climate action is a powerful engine for new industries and jobs, and the next challenge for America's Genius
The 2011 Presidential Climate Action Plan
In August 2010 when it became clear that Congress would not act on a climate bill, we issued several additional recommendations for presidential action -- short-term steps the Administration could take to enhance U.S. credibility in international negotiations as COP-16 approached in Cancun, Mexico. In this final report, we make the case that President Obama’s legacy will be determined in the next two years, even if he is re-elected in 2012. Scientists have watched the consequences of global climate change appear more quickly than many predicted; they warn we are coming close to “tipping points” ... Download the report »
The 2010 Presidential Climate Action Plan
With the failure of the 111th Congress to pass a strong climate bill this year, leadership responsibility shifts back to the Obama Administration -- and to the state and local governments that have served as America's clean energy pioneers over the past decade. What can President Obama do to strengthen the federal government's partnership with state and local governments? What can he do to demonstrate U.S. leadership on climate change -- and to improve the climate for a global treaty -- before the international community meets this November in Cancun, Mexico? Here are five ideas we've just submitted to the Obama Administration ... Download the report »
The 2008 Presidential Climate Action Plan
Security, Opportunity, StewardshipThe principal challenge facing the Obama Administration is to rally the nation to create a new 21st century economy. The United States, like other industrialized nations, has arrived at the cusp between two eras. The outgoing era has been powered largely by carbon-rich fossil fuels with an operating ethic of dominion over natural systems. The incoming era will embrace the responsibility of stewardship and will be powered by carbon-free and largely renewable resources... Download the report »
Fierce Urgency of Now
Bill Becker, the Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project presents a two part video depicting what we've learned about climate change over the last three years and what we can do about it... Read More »
Google Earth
Google has launched a new feature that allows people to see the impact of climate change locally...
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Climate Change Task Force
The Climate Change Task Force (CCTF) is an independent, non-governmental committee comprised of leading international climate change thinkers, scientists, Nobel Peace Laureates, as well as former and current Heads of State, calling upon civil society and the public at large to urgently engage in the climate debate. The task force was formed in 2009 by former Soviet President and Nobel Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev....
Read More »Ray C. Anderson
This site is dedicated to the memory of Ray Anderson, founder and chairman of Interface Inc.
Ray served as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) during the Clinton Administration. He reprised that role in 2006-2007 to chair the National Leadership Summits for a Sustainable America – a project in which many of the people who worked on the PCSD developed a fresh set of goals to put sustainability back on the national agenda.
The Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP) was a result of the four leadership summits. Ray co-chaired PCAP’s National Advisory Committee from 2007-2011. He kept every promise, participated in every meeting, and fulfilled every obligation. He never waivered or rested from his commitment to show by example how industry, the nation and the world could achieve prosperity without wasting resources or harming ecosystems.
The hard work represented on this web site – and in many other venues – would not have been possible without Ray’s leadership, his example and his support.
About PCAP
The Presidential Climate Action Project was created in January 2007 to develop policy recommendations on climate change and clean energy for the 2008 presidential candidates and the Obama Administration. The project issued four reports containing more than 200 recommended changes in federal policies and programs. PCAP issued its final report in January 2011. Three of the reports appear on this page. (The first was not published in electronic form.) PCAP thanks the several foundations and individuals who funded the work and the many organizations and individuals who contributed ideas. If you have questions, please direct them to the project's executive director, Bill Becker, at bbecker@natcapsolutions.org.
President Obama's Authorities to Deal With Climate Change
PCAP commissioned two important studies on the President's power to reshape national programs on climate change and energy security without further action by Congress. In the reports, the Center for Energy and Environmental Security at the University of Colorado Law School studied executive orders and federal laws going back to the 1930s and concluded that current law gives the Executive Branch substantial powers in these two vital areas of national policy.
From Copenhagen Accord to Climate Action: Tracking National Commitments to Curb Global Warming
Natural Resources Defense Council has created this page to track the progress of the national commitments that were part of the Copenhagen Accord.
Courtesy of National Resource Defense Council
Report Gives Sobering View of Warming's Impact on U.S.
A recent U.S. government report offers a sobering appraisal of how climate change is affecting the United States today, and what it's impacts are likely to be in the future.
For anyone wondering whether climate change has already hit the United States, a recent U.S. government report says it has — and in a big way.
By Michael D. Lemonick
Climate Security Index
Changes in the Earth's climate are more evident every day, but the United States has failed to act, alone or with allies, to avoid disaster. Addressing the consequences of changes in the Earth's climate is not simply about saving polar bears or preserving the beauty of mountain glaciers, important as those are. Climate change is a threat to our national security.
Read more and download the full report »
The Presidential Climate Action Project and St. Martin's Press of New York have issued a condensed version of PCAP's presidential climate action plan in book form - an early glimpse of what we'll submit to the next President of the United States. The book is available in electronic format to reduce its carbon footprint. It features hyperlinks to many of the studies and other documents on which the plan's recommendations are based.$10.00
includes U.S. shipping
(50% discount)
Net proceeds will support PCAP's continuing work on presidential climate leadership.