THE NEW WHITEHOUSE GREEN TEAM

US President-elect Barack Obama's new energy secretary and environmental chief - Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu - will charter a tough agenda to generate 2.5 million new jobs through "green" and new technologies to make America more energy efficient and less reliant on foreign oil.
Chu has vowed a new dawn for US leadership to combat climate change.
"This will be a leading priority of my presidency and a defining test of our time," Obama told reporters. "We can't afford complacency nor accept more broken promises. We won't create a new energy economy overnight. We won't protect our environment overnight. But we can begin that work right now if we think anew and if we act anew."
Despite cost concerns as a US recession looms, Obama will cap domestic emissions of greenhouse gases and lead the world on international action to fight global warming and climate change.
"I look forward to being part of president-elect Obama's team which believes we must repair the economy and put us on a path forward towards sustainable energy," Dr Chu said on accepting the appointment.
Lisa Jackson, chief of staff to the New Jersey governor, who will head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) vowed to restore teeth to the EPA. Carol Browner, who served as EPA administrator under president Bill Clinton, has been appointed the White House "climate czar" to oversee measures to curb global warming. And Nancy Sutley, a senior adviser to Mr Obama's transition team, has been named chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Obama faces a tight deadline of December 2009 before the new UN climate treaty is finalized.
The State of the Planet on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN00Tijj_-0
Latest news and planet opinion www.dailyplanetmedia.com
Earth Charter for a better world www.earthcharterfoundation.com