In December 2007, delegates from around the world attended the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the State Department’s press release about the conference, the United States expressed enthusiasm at the opportunity to make a positive impact on this important environmental issue. So did President Bush attend? No. What about Condoleeza Rice? No. Rather, according to the press release, “In recognition of the importance the United States attaches to this conference, the White House [sent] Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality James L. Connaughton.”

I’m afraid to see whom we send when we think a conference isn’t important.

However, it’s almost beside the point that Bush and Condi missed the conference, since recent experience suggests there is a great divide between what the U.S. says and what the U.S. accomplishes. In trying to lead the fight against global terrorism, the U.S. has destabilized Iraq and created a breeding ground for the scourge we went there to eliminate. Decrying the Taliban’s brutality, we opened Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. After all that, we, the biggest polluters on Earth, expect that a mid-level White House bureaucrat will convince the rest of the world that the U.S. is seriously committed to stemming carbon emissions. Remember that old Texas adage: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Now, imagine this: The U.S. jumps from 39th to first on next year’s Environmental Performance Index. This is an unlikely scenario, but think of the message that it would send. The U.S. would actually be doing something about climate change. We would quickly give ourselves a powerful moral lever to use in foreign policy. In the short term, China and India will continue to claim that strict environmental regimes smother their developing economies. However, astronomical growth rates will make this excuse irrelevant.

More practically, such an improvement in the U.S.’s management of greenhouse gas emissions would lend credibility to the economic viability of clean energy and jumpstart research in the field. Successful widespread deployment of clean energy sources in the United States would be an economic vote of confidence by the world’s strongest economy and provide a model for other countries to follow. The research and production that go into such a massive implementation would not only yield new technologies, but would also make the United States the leader in the clean energy industry.

Despite all the hype around increasingly expensive oil, the primary target for addressing climate change in the U.S. should be emissions from coal. Coal is both the largest source of energy in the United States and the dirtiest, producing the most CO2 per unit of energy. Crude oil is refined into a number of different substances, which are in turn distributed for thousands of different applications. Coal, however, is used almost exclusively in the large-scale production of electricity. Rather than attempting to convert millions of petroleum users—from soccer moms to paint thinner factories—coal reform need only focus on the demands and challenges of one industry.

Lessons learned from targeting coal emissions may help other countries’ efforts at coping with climate change. China and India rank just behind the United States with the world’s largest proven coal reserves. A new coal-fired power plant goes into service in China more than every week, and Indian demand for coal has skyrocketed so that Indian domestic coal reserves are projected to run out in the next 40 years. If the U.S. implements clean energy policies fast enough, it may be able to influence the development of coal infrastructure in China and India. At the least, it should deliver a direct message to these countries: in their frenzied development of old-style polluting coal plants, they will only lag further behind.

The U.S. is in desperate need of repairing its credibility in the international community. Although not as glamorous as democratizing missions or anti-terror crusades, drastically reducing carbon emissions from coal is an attainable goal and would boost confidence in America’s ability to practice what it preaches. However, until the American public makes reducing carbon emissions a priority, the U.S. will keep shuffling its feet around the international arena to little avail.

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