President Obama to act on climate change even without support of US Congress

Barack Obama has told divided House of Congress lawmakers that he will act on climate change even if they do not and the United States President pledged to set ambitious long-term goals such as ending the car's dependence on oil.

Obama promised that he would work to promote solar, wind and clean natural gas energy and urged citizens and businesses to cut the energy wasted by homes and industry by 50 per cent over the next 20 years.

In the annual State of the Union address to Congress, Obama urged immediate action and targeted sceptical Republican Party rivals by noting that 12 of the world's warmest years on record took place in the past 15 years.

The President proposed using revenues from oil and gas to fund an "Energy Security Trust" to conduct research into using renewable sources of fuel to power road vehicles.

Obama also noted that Republican Senator John McCain, a frequent critic of the current administration's initiatives, in 2003 introduced a failed proposal to resduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The "Climate Stewardship Act" by McCain and Joe Lieberman aimed at capping greenhouse gas emissions at 2000 levels and setting up a market to give businesses an incentive to become more environmentally sustainable.

The proposal  was defeated and a more ambitious and far reaching bill led by Obama's Democratic Party to reduce emissions was passed by the House of Representatives in 2009 but was halted after falling in the Senate.

Obama has since relied on executive power to fight climate change, with the Environmental Protection Agency ordering stricter standards for power plants which form the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

As Obama was speaking, Republican leaders released statements urging Obama to approve the Keystone pipeline from Canada, arguing that it would create jobs. The pipeline is strongly opposed by environmentalists as the oil from tar sands is heavy in carbon emissions.

Environmentalists, seeing a new opportunity in Obama's renewed focus on climate change, plan what they hope will be a major rally in Washington on Sunday to press for action.

US climate scientists say that even if the world meets current goals on emissions, the planet is still poised for potentially catastrophic warming. Obama has set a goal of cutting emissions by 17 per cent by 2020 from 2005 levels.