I am quite critical of the president in many areas, from healthcare to trade to foreign policy. And I certainly don't come to defend even his climate change specific policies (namely, the pro-fracking foolishness). But, it's at least modestly satisfying to the ear to hear a leader who has a brain and can put coherent thoughts together.
Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Ryan Louis Madrid. I'm from the Philippines. I'm one of the person you --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I was just talking about you.
Q Yes. And, yes, it gave me a little tear in my eyes. I thank you so much for putting us -- making me as, like, one of the models maybe for what youth can do for change.
But my question really is, I just learned recently that the U.S. and ASEAN will be making a climate change statement. I'd like to know if you could tell us what this is all about, and how this would be different from the Kyoto Protocol and other climate change efforts in making real efforts towards curbing climate change. Thank you. (Applause.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good. So first of all, let's just establish the science and the facts. The planet is getting warmer. The reason the planet is getting warmer is because human activity is releasing greenhouse gases that is trapping heat and increasing temperatures. And because you start getting a negative feedback loop, as it gets hotter, ice melts. The permafrost in places like Siberia start releasing methane gases. Ice packs in Greenland start melting. That then makes it even warmer. And we're on a trajectory in which the temperatures could rise so high that it would have catastrophic impacts around the world because temperatures start changing, weather patterns shift. Traditional monsoon seasons might completely reverse themselves. Areas that once used to have arable land suddenly now have long droughts. Areas that used to be temperate suddenly get floods. We're seeing the impacts in developed countries. We see it in my own country. And we're seeing impacts in poor countries. And we're seeing impacts, obviously, in island nations where if the temperatures continue to rise, we'll end up with oceans that are two feet or three feet higher, and it could swallow up entire countries.
So this is perhaps the central challenge, the most important challenge facing humanity in the 21st century, is getting control of this.
Now, the good news is that we can begin to slow down that process so that the temperatures only go up a certain level, and although we'll have to make some adaptations, it doesn't become catastrophic. But in order to do that, we have to start transitioning our economies to clean energy rather than dirty energy. It means that we have to start developing wind power and solar power. It means that societies have to use energy more efficiently. It means that we have to find ways to use safe nuclear power because they don't -- that doesn’t emit greenhouse gases. So there's no single answer. There's a group of answers to the problem.
And some of you may be aware that the United States and China are the two biggest emitters in the world. The United States had been the biggest emitter; China overtook us. In fairness to China, each individual Chinese person probably uses less energy and emits less greenhouse gases than an individual American. But there are a lot more Chinese than there are Americans.
And if, as China continues to develop, they start matching the United States in how much carbon they release, we'll never survive. None of us. Same is true with India -- just because of the size of its population. And the same is true with Southeast Asia, which, as I said before, contains one out of every 10 people in the world.
So all of us are going to have to be a part of this. And the United States and China -- in a meeting with President Xi -- we announced that we are both going to set bold targets for greenhouse gas reductions from 2020 forward.
What we're encouraging ASEAN to do, individual ASEAN countries, is also to come up with goals for how they are going to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. And if all countries around the world put forward ambitious goals at a Paris conference that we're going to be having in 2015, then this can serve at the basis for collective action in reducing greenhouse gases.
But although we know what we need to do, the transition will be difficult because -- just to give you one example -- Indonesia.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah!
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You might not want to cheer about this -- has been cutting down its forests at a very high rate in order to accommodate the palm oil industry. Now the palm oil industry is very lucrative, and you have some very big landholders and big companies who are making a lot of money from the palm oil industry. And they create some jobs. But when you just deforest entire sections of Sumatra or Borneo, that can end up having a devastating effect on the climate.
There are countries in ASEAN that subsidize energy. Now, oftentimes this is with the best of intentions. The idea would be we want to make gasoline cheaper or electricity cheaper so that poor people can afford it. The problem is that when you subsidize energy, there's no incentive to use less energy. So typically when you have a lot of fuel subsidies, those economies are very inefficient in how they use energy, and they generate more pollution.
The countries that are most efficient in energy use, not only do they not subsidize energy -- in fact, they tax energy use. So you look like -- in a country like Norway, which produces a lot of oil, but gasoline there is still $6 or $7 a gallon, which in liters -- who wants to do a liter conversion for me? Anyway, it's very expensive.
So part of what we hope each country in ASEAN commits to is to take the steps that will be required to reduce or at least slow the growth of its carbon emissions, and then slowly start reducing them. And it doesn't have to be overnight, but the transition has to begin.
So if you look at a country like Indonesia, making a commitment to reduce deforestation, reduce and eventually end fuel subsidies, those two things alone could probably help Indonesia meet a very bold carbon reduction goal.
In the United States, I've instructed my Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the amount of greenhouse gases that power plants can send into the atmosphere. And we've doubled fuel-efficiency standards on cars. So in a few years, by the middle of the next century, by 2025, you won't be able to sell a car in the United States unless it is delivering twice as much mileage for every gallon of gas.
And so you can build in transition times to get this done. But we have to start now. And this is probably a good place for me to end by just saying that the issue of climate change is a perfect example of why young people have to lead.
Because old people, they've created a mess, and then they'll be gone. And then you -- (applause) -- you're the ones who have to deal with it. And also what happens is old people get set in their ways. So the older you get, the more likely you are to say, that's how it's always been so that's how I'm going to keep on doing it -- even if there's a better way to do things.
Young people, they're asking, well, why do I have to do it that way? Let's try it this way. And that kind of willingness to accept challenges and try things in a new way, to not be stuck in the past, or to look towards the future, that's what all of you represent.
So I'm hopeful that you have a chance to participate in our Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Fellows Program. Maybe I'll see some of you in the United States. I'm sure all of you are going to do great things. And I hope all of you dream big and then work hard to achieve those dreams.
Okay? Thank you very much, everybody. (Applause.)
I don't come here to put down a particularly keen analysis of what he said other than to say my reaction was: can you imagine George W. Bush, or most of the idiots in the Republican Party, ever giving a complex answer to an important issue?
Which, of course, makes it even more infuriating that the president takes some very bad positions...but that's not the topic here.