Kyoto
Pledge By Tufts President John DiBiaggio (
4/24/99)
In
April 2002, Lawrence Bacow, Tufts' new President,
declared his support of the Kyoto goal and
Tufts' continued commitment to the environment.
Tufts has a long-standing commitment to addressing environmental issues,
and environment is one of our university signature programs. Tufts has
a dozen graduate and two undergraduate environmental degree programs
that address environmental science, environmental health, environmental
technology and environmental policy. Our new Tufts Institute of the
Environment coordinates these programs and events like this conference.
Civil society can often accomplish what government can not do or will
not attempt. This is certainly the case for climate change. Our national
government is moving slowly and some elements have vowed to block action
entirely. Meanwhile, heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue to accumulate
in the atmosphere, and evidence of rising temperatures, melting glaciers,
sea level rise, increases in regional air pollution and rapidly altering
ecosystems continue to accumulate.
Despite the existence of an international agreement that the United
States and other industrial countries should reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions, the glacial pace of implementation decreases the likelihood
that the modest goals of the Kyoto Protocol will be met. It is therefore
time for the individuals, environmental organizations, universities,
churches and other institutions, municipalities and companies gathered
here today to begin reversing our own ever-rising carbon dioxide and
other industrial greenhouse gases.
I
am pleased to join with several other organizations and companies today
and publicly commit Tufts University to meet or beat the Kyoto goal
of a seven percent reduction below 1990 in our carbon dioxide emissions
by the year 2012.
The Tufts Climate Initiative has established our
1990 baseline emissions level, and calculated our current energy related
emissions. Yes, unfortunately our emissions have risen. Our facilities
managers and students have already begun to identify opportunities to
lower our emissions through fuel switching, improved operations, and
retrofitting of existing buildings. We are also exploring the opportunities
for using passive solar and other renewables in some of our new construction.
As we embark on a new and sustained effort to address the critical issue
of climate change, we look forward to working in partnership with utilities,
corporations and other organizations to reduce our energy use and emissions.
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