On Tuesday, President-elect Barack Obama pledged to engage vigorously in international climate change talks after he takes office. Obama recorded a video message that was shown to the Governors Global Climate Summit.

President-Elect Barack Obama: “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. That will start with a federal cap-and-trade system. We’ll establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 percent by 2050. Further, we’ll invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private sector efforts to build a clean energy future.”