tonya brown has joined up with moms across america to spread the word about the dangers climate change poses to the health of our children including tonya s daughter semay. there is semay right there. this doctor has spent her career researching the health impacts of pollution at the cleveland clinic and helping families whose lives are impacted every single day. doctor, thank you. [ applause ] sister joan marie steadmond has helped with leadership. thank you for your leadership. process plaus and she s got a pretty important guide on her side as pope francis made clear in his in cyclical this
about. [ applause ] now, i don t want to i don t want to fool you here. this is going to be hard dealing with climate change in its entirety. it s challenging. no single action no single country will change the warming of the planet on it is own. but today with america leading the way, countries representing 70% of the carbon pollution from the world s energy sector have announced plans to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. in december with america leading the way, we have a chance to put in place one of the most ambitious international climate agreements.
going to have higher energy prices when you restrict the output of those sources of energy. and it has very big ripple effects because energy is necessary for just about everything we make and do. so it s not just when your energy bill comes in the mail or you fill up your gas tank it s through all of the goods and services that we pay for and that s why it had a ripple effect where higher prices destroy a lot of jobs and cause a lot of families to lose income. what about the president s point about, you know technology evolving and saying we need to know our history and there s no excuse for inaction? how do you respond to that, nick? i think we can have markets above and a free market policy that rewards innovation and competition and will ultimately provide the affordable and reliable energy that american families and businesses need. but this plan is restricting those energy choices that is artificially driving up energy prices and, most importantly, it s not going to have a hu
we can take action. over the past several years america has been working to use less dirty energy more clean energy waste less energy throughout our economy. we set new fuel economy standards that means our cars will go twice as far on a gallon of gas by the middle of next decade. combined with lower gas prices these standards will save drivers an average of $700 at the pump this year. we double down on our investment in renewable energy. we re generating three times as much wind power, 20 times as much solar power as we did in 2008. these steps aren t making a difference. over the past decade even as our economy has continued to grow the united states has cut our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on earth. that s the good news. [ applause ]
nationwide asthma rates have more than doubled and climate change puts those americans at greater risk of landing in the hospital. as one of america s governors has said we re the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it. and that s why i committed the united states to leading the world on this challenge. because i believe there is such a thing as being too late. most of the issues that i deal with and i deal with some tough issues that cross my desk. by definition i don t deal with issues if they are easy to solve because somebody else has already solved them. and some of them are grim. some of them are heartbreaking. some of them are hard. some of them are frustrating. but most of the time the issues