White House Will Push Ahead With Climate Bill, Stern Tells Investors

"UNITED NATIONS -- U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern today urged nations that signed the Copenhagen Accord to submit their greenhouse gas emissions-reduction targets and to hammer out details critical to implementing the broad agreement.

'It's incredibly important that those things happen,' Stern said, speaking before an audience of Wall Street and institutional investors meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

In his first public comments since returning from the U.N. climate summit last month in Copenhagen, Stern sought to dispel notions that the resulting three-page, nonbinding agreement was a failure. He also said the Obama administration fully intends to press ahead with energy and climate legislation designed to reduce U.S. emissions, though he did not endorse a particular approach such as a cap-and-trade program.

'There will be a significant effort on the part of all in the administration to press forward,' he said. 'The president is focused on it, and the White House is focused on it.' "

Joel Kirkland reports for Greenwire January 14, 2010.