Mitt Romney: Climate Change is Real, World Must Tackle It

As he considers a third presidential campaign, Mitt Romney said Wednesday night that one of the country's biggest challenges is climate change and that global solutions are needed to combat it.

"I'm one of those Republicans who thinks we are getting warmer and that we contribute to that," he said.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee spoke to a sold-out crowd of about 3,000 at an investment management conference. It was his second public address since privately telling potential donors two weeks ago that he's considering seeking the presidency in 2016.

Romney didn't address a possible campaign at the event, but he used his 30-minute speech and a Q&A session afterward to lay out what appeared to be a populist platform. While hitting familiar Republican points criticizing the size of the federal debt, Romney at times sounded like a Democrat, calling for President Barack Obama and other leaders in Washington to act on climate change, poverty and education.

His evolving platform comes as he works to reshape his image after consecutive presidential defeats. He spent little time talking about poverty, the middle class or climate change in a 2012 campaign in which opponents cast him as an out-of-touch millionaire. But in public and private conversations in recent weeks he has focused on poverty, perhaps above all, a dramatic shift for the former private-equity executive.

Romney had previously acknowledged that climate change is real, noting in his 2010 book that "human activity is a contributing factor." But he questioned the extent to which man was contributing to the warming of the planet and said throughout his 2012 campaign that America shouldn't spend significant resources combatting the problem.

Romney said Wednesday night that federal leaders have failed to enact global agreements needed to tackle the problem.

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Milt Romney is real and we must tackle him....in 16'.

Zitat

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"I'm one of those Republicans who thinks we are getting warmer and that we contribute to that," he said.

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CL's Translation: "I'm one of the 'Republicans' who need to be kicked out of the way if the country is to be saved from eight years of Obamanation."