In a wide-ranging press conference on Tuesday before heading back to Washington, Obama said he thinks the conference will succeed.
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“I think when you weigh the costs and benefits against these so-called legally binding obligations they don’t’ add up”, the Wisconsin Republican said, adding that the public wants measure that won’t impede job creation.
“We want the House to adopt this resolution while the climate change conference is going on in France so that the world will know that in America there is a disagreement about the extreme power grab that this president is initiating under his clean energy plan”, Republican Ed Whitfield said shortly before the votes.
Before the conference opened, Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said the two countries have a common vision of what is needed in an agreement, including steps toward a low carbon global economy and helping financial support to help developing nations adapt.
The House passed a pair of resolutions, largely along party lines, that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing rules the administration released earlier this year to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The two leaders promised to work together to ensure the Paris conference achieves ambitious and successful results.
Developing countries need money and technology to make the switch to clean energy sources like solar and wind power.
President Francois Hollande’s pledge came in a meeting with 12 African leaders about the threats from climate change, including coastal erosion, advancing deserts and rivers that are drying up.
“Countries should be allowed to seek their own solutions, according to their national interest”, he said.
It’s just one tactic Republicans are using to try to derail the United Nations talks, where negotiators are trying to reach an worldwide agreement to combat climate change.
A successor agreement would face a similar fate in the US House/Senate.
And German Chancellor Angela Merkel reminded the leaders of the “billions of people pinning their hopes on what we do in Paris”.
The Paris 2020 negotiations should have all aspects of the Kyoto Protocol and adhere to differentiation of the developed and the developing countries, the statement said.
Obama spoke to reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. Climate Summit outside Paris, where leaders are working to agree on binding measures to keep global temperatures from rising more than two degrees C. above pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
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The United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol and dropped out of it completely in 2001.
