“I can’t tell you who to vote for … at least not right now”, Obama said during a September visit to Iowa.
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McCarthy’s thoughts aside, his district, California’s 23rd, has some of the worst air pollution in the entire country.
“Your credibility and America’s ability to influence events depends on taking seriously what other countries care about”, Obama said. “That is why we need a universal, meaningful agreement here in Paris”, the UN Secretary-General said.
Fabius said Obama broached the subject of pending votes himself while in Paris this week to help open the talks and meet with French President François Hollande.
More than 150 heads of states and governments had gathered in Paris on Monday in the largest ever congregation of world leaders to give their political backing to the climate change agreement being negotiated, but their statements clearly reflected their country positions and did not any progress on resolving differences on important issues.
President Obama wrapped up his visit to the Paris climate talks on Tuesday by defending his decision to focus on the environment in the midst of a war in Syria and brushing off threats that his climate change efforts would be thwarted by Republicans in Washington. “Getting 200 nations to agree on anything is hard… but I’m convinced that we’re going to get big things done here”.
BASIC nations, including India, have called on the developed world to define a clear roadmap for providing $100 billion by 2020 to developing countries to tackle climate change as bitterly-divided negotiators here tried to hash out a pact acceptable to all.
Obama has spent months prodding other countries to make ambitious carbon-cutting pledges to the agreement, which would last long beyond the end of his presidency in early 2017.
“While this may serve to polish President Obama’s reputation among the environmental activist community, it will not result in a binding worldwide agreement or meaningfully impact global temperatures”.
More than 180 countries have pledged to cut or curb their emissions, but scientists say more significant reductions are needed to limit man-made warming of the Earth to 2°C over pre-industrial times, the internationally agreed-upon goal.
Obama and members of his administration have repeatedly asserted that climate change poses the greatest threat to the planet and future generations, not terrorism.
The negotiations began in earnest Tuesday, with the key task of figuring out who will pay for everything the leaders say needs to be done.
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The talks, which run through December 11, are aimed at finding a broader, tougher replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which only required rich countries to cut their emissions.
