My Turn: The Energy Electranet

I believe that this future will come to pass, one way or another, because of the market forces that are now in motion—driven by visionaries at companies as diverse as Wal-Mart, British Petroleum and General Electric. But we need to hurry the future, because the climate crisis really demands immediate action.

So that means governments around the world will have to step up and exert real leadership. As a first step, the United States and Australia should join the rest of the global economy by adopting the Kyoto treaty and its market mechanisms. The successor agreement—currently under negotiation now—should then be adopted as quickly as possible, creating a globalized system like that of the Montreal Protocol, which is well on the way to solving the ozone-depletion problem. Undoubtedly, this will be a challenge, but also a rare opportunity for our generation to unite behind a historic mission.

Gore is the former vice president of the United States and author of "An Inconvenient Truth."

© 2006