Editors' Summary:

Effective presidents can make significant progress in moving climate policy forward. Presidential scholarships suggest the next president should attract a top team of advisers, fashion a practical, workable program to address global warming, take the diplomatic initiative on the issue, coordinate his efforts with those of influential members of Congress, employ effective public persuasion, and carefully craft unilateral actions that will dramatize the climate change problem and take at least modest steps to alleviate it. While these steps may help the next president be effective at moving policy forward, there are still practical limits to presidential power that will limit the degree to which any president can tackle climate issues.