Rudd Welcomes Obama's Resolve to Address Global Warming

Meeting with President Obama for the first time at the White House, Prime Minister Rudd said, "It's going to be tough, it's going to be hard, it's going to require a lot of political leadership. But with our partners around the world, I think our governments are determined to make a difference, and not just to push this one away permanently into the too-hard basket."

"I think that's good," said the Australian leader. "And I'll just say it's great to have America onboard. It's great to have America onboard on this one."

President Obama said making sure that we are developing the new clean energies of the future is the key to solving the financial problems faced by the United States, Australia and the entire world.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, left, and President Barack Obama come to a meeting of the minds at the White House. March 24, 2009. (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

"One area where we agree there's enormous potential is in the area of clean energy," Obama said. "Both Australia and the United States have vast coal reserves, but we're also very interested in figuring out how do we reduce the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming."

"If we can take some intelligent steps and we start to discuss how we could work together on this, figuring out how to sequester and capture the carbon that's emitted from coal, as just one element of a broader range of energy initiatives, that's an example of something that can create jobs; also deal with a potential environmental crisis - that's the kind of economic growth that I think we're going to be looking for," said the President.

President Obama indicated that the United States will become a partner with Australia and many other governments around the world in the Australian initiative for a global carbon capture and storage institute.

In September 2008, Prime Minister Rudd announced that Australia would host the institute and contribute up to A$100 million a year towards its operation.

Today, the prime minister said U.S. participation is going to be "welcome around the world."

"Generating jobs through clean coal and carbon sequestration technologies is critical. It's also critical in terms of bringing down greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Carbon capture and storage is a process that captures carbon dioxide, C02, produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal and transports it to a site where it is injected deep underground for long-term safe and secure storage. While there have been small scale trials of the technology, no industrial-scale integrated carbon capture and storage power stations have been built.

Around 80 percent of Australia’s electricity currently comes from coal fired power generation, while the United States derives about half of its electricity from burning coal.

Coal is now Australia’s largest source of export earnings, earning an estimated $43 billion in 2008-09.

The institute will aim to accelerate carbon projects through facilitating demonstration projects and identifying and supporting necessary research - including regulatory settings and regulatory frameworks.

During most of the eight years of the George W. Bush Administration, Australia was under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard. Those two leaders backed away from engagement on climate change issues, preferring to rely on fossil fuel exploration and development.

The two current leaders today described their relationship as strong and growing stronger.

President Obama said, "There are very few countries that are closer than the United States and Australia. And Prime Minister Rudd's government, I think, has shown the kind of vision not just domestically but on the international stage that we greatly admire."

Prime Minister Rudd said, "This alliance of ours between Australia and the United States has been going for about 65 years or so, and some 13 U.S. Presidents and 13 Australian Prime Ministers. And it's a first-class alliance and it's a first-class partnership between our two countries. And the purpose of this visit is to reaffirm it and to examine its future and to work on its future together."

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