Past Events 2007
Ambassador Foley Speaks at Global Warming Conference
On October 3, 2007, Ambassador Foley joined Hungarian President Sólyom and Environment Minister Fodor as one of the main speakers in a climate change conference jointly organized by the Hungarian economic and political magazines Figyelő and Heti Válasz entitled "In the 24th Hour - The Effects of Global Warming on Europe and Hungary."
The Ambassador's remarks underlined U.S. engagement on climate change and the importance of deploying new, clean technologies to meet the climate change challenge. She stressed that the U.S. is as concerned with climate change as Europe and reviewed the long history of United States leadership in nature conservation and international environmental initiatives. The Ambassador highlighted the broad range of U.S. actions in recent years to confront the challenge -- which since 2001 has totaled $37 billion on climate-related science, data assessment, technology, international assistance and incentive programs. She stressed as well the critical role the private sector has played in this broad-based effort and the growing interest among investors in clean technology projects. The result of these efforts is that U.S. greenhouse intensity -- the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of GDP -- decreased 8.5 percent for the period 2000-2005, compared to Europe's 4.5 percent decrease in the same time period. Finally, the Ambassador underlined that U.S. multilateral actions on climate change -- most notably the September 27-28 Meeting of Major Economies (MEM) in Washington -- are aimed at reinforcing and accelerating efforts to find broad agreement when the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meet in Bali in December.