madam president i want to refer to our strategy and preparations for the copenhagen conference on climate change later this year where we have taken a leadership role but one which is threatened by the economic recession and demands that we relax our standards
let me give you one example
more than three years ago we agreed that new requirements would be placed on car manufacturers to change the air conditioning refrigerants they use which currently have a global warming potential one four hundred times greater than carbon dioxide
we said that should take place in all new car models from twenty eleven
but now we hear that some manufacturers led i understand by ford and general motors are trying to exploit loopholes to get out of that obligation
later this month there is a meeting of the national type approval authorities
it is very important that commissioner verheugen takes a lead and makes it clear that we are not going to relax our standards and that these refrigerants must be replaced by twenty eleven
if we weaken now we open the floodgates to lobbying from industry across the board and our leadership role on climate change will be seriously undermined
