Obama to surprise climate summit in video address

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By Christina Bellantoni

President-elect Barack Obama will drop in on California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's international climate change summit via video Tuesday morning.

The Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles aims to craft a blueprint for the next global agreement on the issue, Mr. Schwarzenegger's office said.

Mr. Obama will appear in a 4-minute video during the opening of the two-day bipartisan summit, which includes more than a dozen top world leaders and U.S. governors who have taken action into their own hands.

The president-elect, who takes the oath of office Jan. 20, pre-taped the video address, intended to be a surprise for summit attendees.

Here is the video address in full:

"My presidency will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process," Mr. Obama says in the video.

He promised to begin with a federal cap and trade system that would reduce emissions to their 1990 levels within 12 years and another 80 percent reduction by the year 2050.

Mr. Obama also said the government would invest $15 billion annually to help the private sector develop and improve solar and wind power and biofuel, saying such industries can create up to 5 million new "green jobs" to help the struggling economy.

"We will tap nuclear power, while making sure its safe. And we will develop clean coal technologies," he said.