Global Warming Becomes Major US Campaign Issue(3/3)

Denis McDonough advises Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"So at the end of the day, if I could put one word on it, it is urgency, this is a problem that is far past its prime. It now has to be confronted with the urgency it demands."

Todd Stern is a policy adviser for New York Senator Hillary Clinton, currently the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic Party's nomination.

Stern says Clinton favors a balanced approach to climate change.

"We have twin challenges here, which is oil security, we want to depend less on oil, less on foreign oil, but less on oil all together for national security and economic reasons, but also a climate challenge. We do not want to solve one, the oil security problem, while creating a bigger problem on the climate front."

On the Republican side, John Raidt, an advisor to Arizona Senator John McCain, says his candidate is a long-time supporter of nuclear energy.

All of the political advisers at the Brookings forum say their candidates support policies to create alternate energy technologies, promote fuel efficiency and reduce dependence on foreign oil.