Kerry, Gingrich Heat Things Up in Climate Debate

ABC News’ Matthew Zavala Reports: Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., debated the best way to solve climate change problems Tuesday in Washington, DC., clearly showing their ideological differences.

The two were in agreement that the issue needs to be addressed, but disagreed about which method would work quickest and most efficiently.

The former speaker, who is still mulling a presidential bid said, "We have to have a very strong commitment to finding new incentives, to use new science and new technology and to maximize the rate of innovation."

Gingrich said that he was in favor of creating market incentives for the countries that pollute the most to find ways to limit greenhouse emissions.

Kerry counters that Gingrich’s idea reacts to the problem too late. "He takes the consensus of the U.N. report, but then essentially says, what we need to do is encourage the marketplace to go out and respond, and to unleash science, to unleash technology," said Kerry.

The core of Gingrich’s proposals focused on the countries of China and India who are rapidly growing and creating large amounts of greenhouse gases.  Gingrich believes that the best way to solve the problem would be through economic incentives.

Kerry said he thinks that a carbon neutral society is the best way to reverse the effects of global warming.

The Massachusetts Senator also added some humor and said that Gingrich’s idea by that allowing the market to be the answer to the problem would be like saying, "Barry Bonds go investigate steroids or by saying, ‘Enron, you take over pensions’."

Kerry believes that the best way to deal with the problem is to be a carbon neutral society.  The 2004 presidential candidate, who recently authored the environmental tome "This Moment on Earth" with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, cited numerous statistics to strengthen his argument.

The debate was sponsored by the New York University Brademas Center exploratory series, the Brookings Institution, and RAND Corporation.