Originally published on the CGS blog on September 9, 2009.
The Partnership for a New America, a bipartisan group of 32 former secretaries of State, national security advisers, senators, military leaders and senior foreign policy officials, is urging Congress to act on climate change.
The group recently released a statement calling for Congress to do just that, as well as reduce the country’s dependence on petroleum and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
One of the signatories, Frank Wisner (former Ambassador to India, Philippines, Egypt and Zambia), said that climate change affects water and food supplies, contributes to mass migration and refugee crises, and destabilizes weak governments. “”We must take this issue on as a matter of foreign policy and exercise leadership”, he said.
The statement does not specifically endorse the Waxman-Markey Bill which passed the House in late June and is under consideration by the Senate, but it does urge the Senate to act soon and create a bipartisan plan to address the crisis. Another one of the signatories, R. James Woolsey (CIA director 1993-1995) criticized the Waxman-Markey Bill for not doing enough to reduce U.S. dependence on oil. “It’s not a question of imported oil versus domestic oil — it’s oil,” Woolsey said. “We need to destroy its monopoly on transportation.”
