Remarks announcing the clear skies and global climate change initiatives in Silver Spring, Maryland

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Feb 18, 2002

The new budget also provides $40 million under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act to help countries redirect debt payments towards protecting tropical forests, forests that store millions of tons of carbon. And I've also ordered the Secretary of State to develop a new initiative to help developing countries stop illegal logging, a practice that destroys biodiversity and releases millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

And finally, my Government is following through on our commitment to provide $25 million for climate observation systems in developing countries that will help scientists understand the dynamics of climate change.

To clean the air and to address climate change, we need to recognize that economic growth and environmental protection go hand in band. Affluent societies are the ones that demand and can, therefore, afford the most environmental protection. Prosperity is what allows us to commit more and more resources to environmental protection. And in the coming decades, the world needs to develop and deploy billions of dollars of technologies that generate energy in cleaner ways. And we need strong economic growth to make that possible.

Americans are among the most creative people in our history. We have used radio waves to peer into the deepest reaches of space. We cracked life's genetic code. We have made our air and land and water significantly cleaner, even as we have built the world's strongest economy. When I see what Americans have done, I know what we can do. We can tap the power of economic growth to further protect our environment for generations that will follow. And that's what we're going to do.

Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:05 p.m. in the Science Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In his remarks, he referred to NOAA Administrator Conrad "Connie" C. Lautenbacher, Jr.; and Sasha Cohen, figure skater, 2002 U.S. Olympic team. The President also referred to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol to the convention.