February 3, 2000
Web posted at: 6:41 a.m. EST (1141 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House will announce a $2.4 billion proposal Thursday to deal with global climate change, a senior administration official said.

The amount represents a 42 percent increase over last year's funding levels. President Clinton's plan calls for a $200 million investment to accelerate the development of clean energy technologies around the world by creating competitive markets and encouraging the export of such technologies.

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Global climate

In his State of the Union address, Clinton called global warming the most important environmental challenge of the 21st century.

The administration says its plan would help reduce fossil fuel use and so-called "greenhouse gases" in the developing world, while creating $5 billion in new export revenues for U.S. companies at the same time -- and as many as 100,000 new U.S. jobs by 2005.

Clinton also wants to offer $4 billion in tax incentives over five years to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Consumers would get tax credits for purchasing energy-efficient homes, equipment, and cars.

The third layer of the administration's global climate change budget is $976 million in tax incentives over five years to accelerate the development of bio-based technologies. The tax breaks for those technologies, which convert crops and trees into fuels and other products, are slated to grow to $2.1 billion over 10 years.

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