“They’re very different threats, but they’re both very serious”. All but nine have been released. The lake, surrounded by Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, has shrunk as much as 90 percent since 1960, changing the lives of farmers, fishermen and herders. Some also say the increasing desperation is driving people into the extremists’ ranks. “That is why we need a universal, meaningful agreement here in Paris”, the UN Secretary-General said. “This notion of an expanded donor base is happening”. The group wants to create an Islamic caliphate.
Advertisement
“The reason is because this one trend, climate change, affects all trends”, Mr. Obama said, arguing that failing to address the problem will force the world to devote more economic and military resources to the problem later on.
The United Nations Conference on Climate Change, #COP21, got under way November 30 in Paris with a host of world leaders participating and a huge security force deployed. “And that your credibility and America’s ability to influence events depends on taking seriously what other countries care about”. But it is particularly vulnerable to a changing climate, as much of its population is poor, rural and dependent on rain-fed agriculture.
Obama also met with envoys from island nations hit hard by rising seas and increasingly violent storms, which scientists attribute to climate change prompted by man-made carbon emissions. That treaty required only rich countries to cut their emissions, while this time the goal is for everyone to pitch in. He said negotiators should insist upon “a single transparency mechanism that all countries are adhering to” and said those mechanisms must be “legally binding”.
Obama would have little chance of getting the Republican-run Congress to vote to approve a fully binding new climate treaty fighting global warming. That set off a search for a compromise where parts of the deal are binding and others are not, sparing the need for a new vote in Congress.
“COP is rigged for rich countries”, read one banner, referring to the conference’s formal name COP21. “The national climate plans submitted by more than 180 countries cover close to 100 per cent of global emissions”.
He tried to portray the Republicans as out of step with world leaders and even their opponents overseas, who “are not arguing about is whether the science of climate change is real”, he said.
Meanwhile, French President Hollande heard from 12 African leaders who described the Sahara Desert encroaching on farmland, forests disappearing from Congo to Madagascar and rising sea levels swallowing homes in West African river deltas.
The proposal spurred concern from developing nations that their richer counterparts are watering down a commitment to increase funding for global warming.
“I actually think we’re going to solve this thing”, he said, noting that many people would not have predicted so many world leaders would gather to work on finding a solution so soon.
Hollande said, “The world, and in particular the developed world, owes the African continent an environmental debt”.
After kick starting the climate conference by apologizing for the USA role as a primary culprit for global warming, he swiftly joined hands with authoritarian China to lead the way in forging a sweeping worldwide agreement to peer-pressure rich countries into reducing carbon emissions and provide development funds to poorer countries.
“Since developing countries already experience climate change impacts, the Paris agreement can not focus only on mitigation”.
Envoys at the Paris climate conference say governments and companies need to do more to protect forests, which can help slow global warming.
Britain’s Prince Charles, indigenous leaders and other dignitaries met Tuesday to call attention to shrinking global forests from South America to Russian Federation and Africa, in part because of illegal logging.
Advertisement
It is unclear what Obama ate during the dinner, but the president told reporters that he would solicit recommendations from Hollande.
