Climate debate settled: Obama

US President Barack Obama has renewed his campaign to curb carbon emissions, saying the debate over climate change is over.

Graduating students cheer after President Barack Obama spoke during the University of California Irvine commencement ceremony in Anaheim.

US President Barack Obama has renewed his campaign to curb carbon emissions, saying the debate over climate change is over.

Mr Obama, who made the battle against climate change a core promise of his 2008 election campaign, has been stymied by political opposition. Congress “is full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence”, Mr Obama told a crowd of more than 30,000 at the University of California.

“They’ll tell you climate change is a hoax or a fad. One says the world might actually be cooling.”

Two weeks ago, Mr Obama unveiled a contentious plan to cut carbon emissions from US power plants by 30 per cent by 2030, down from 2005 levels.

The plan would let US states choose their own approaches as long as each enforces restrictions on carbon emissions.

He used his speech to the university to present a $US1 billion ($1.06bn) competitive fund to help communities hit by natural disasters linked to climate change. “Climate change is no longer a distant threat,” he said. “In some parts of the country, weather-related disasters like droughts, fires, storms and floods are going to get harsher and costlier.”

He stressed that climate change remained “one of the most significant long-term challenges” to the US and the world. “The climate change deniers suggest there’s still a debate over the science. There’s not,” Mr Obama said. “I’ve got to admit, though, it’s pretty rare that you’ll encounter someone who says the problem you’re trying to solve doesn’t even exist.”

When president John F. Kennedy set the US on a course for the moon, Mr Obama said, “I don’t remember anyone saying the moon wasn’t real, or that it was made of cheese.”

AFP