LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- In videotaped comments to the on-going Governors's Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama promised to set stringent limits on greenhouse gases, saying the need is too urgent for delay.
"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," Obama said. "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious."
This was Obama's first speech on global warming since winning the election.
He repeated his campaign promise to create a system that limits carbon dioxide emissions and forces companies to pay for the right to emit the gas. Using the money collected from that system, Obama plans to invest 15 billion dollars each year in alternative energy.
That investment -- in solar, wind and nuclear power, as well as advanced coal technology -- will create jobs at a time of economic turmoil, he said.
"It will ... help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating 5 million new green jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced," Obama said.
In his four-minute, videotaped speech which largely repeated elements of his energy plan from the campaign trail, Obama said the nation must cut greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990levels by the year 2050.
He repeatedly linked the fight against global warming to reviving the economy, saying the investment in alternative energy would put Americans to work.
Obama also made a point of backing technologies that many environmentalists despise -- nuclear power and "clean coal," which involves trapping and storing underground the emissions from coal-burning power plants.
Obama told participants at the governors' climate conference that he would work with any country, state or business that wanted to fight climate change.
"I promise you this: When I am president, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House," he said. "Any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that is willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have anally in the United States of America."
Obama touted the idea of companies paying to emit greenhouse gases, a system known as "cap and trade," during the campaign.
Under such a system, the government would set an overall limit on greenhouse gas emissions and let companies buy and sell the right to emit specific amounts. The limit would decline over time.
Such systems are complicated to create. They're also controversial. Critics say they amount to a tax on energy use that would hurt businesses and consumers at a time when the economy is floundering.
But California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger threw his support behind Obama.
"Of course I am very, very happy," Schwarzenegger said in response to Obama's statement. "This is so important for our country, because we have been the biggest polluters in the world, and it is about time that we as a country recognize that and that we work together with other nations in order to fight global warming."
Schwarzenegger convened the Global Climate Summit along with the governors of Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Wisconsin -- states that have been developing their own global warming policies rather than waiting for federal action.
Schwarzenegger clashed repeatedly with the Bush administration on climate policy and complained that the White House was dragging its feet on a looming crisis. He told the conference Tuesday that he welcomed a new approach from Washington and will work with Obama.
Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Mexico, India, Indonesia and the United Kingdom all sent representatives to the two-day conference which opened on Tuesday.
