Kerry: Obama's climate change targets won't be reversed
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says an "overwhelming majority" of Americans know climate change is happening and want the U.S. honor its commitments under the Paris climate agreement
By | Associated Press – 7 minutes ago
- ricky l 0 seconds ago
- The Latest: 300 US businesses urge Trump to back Paris deal
Associated PressNovember 16, 2016
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US Secretary of State John Kerry delivers an address at the COP22 climate change conference in Marrakech, Wednesday, Nov 16, 2016. Kerry made a stirring appeal Wednesday to all countries — including his own — to press ahead with the fight against climate change, saying a failure to do so would be a "betrayal of devastating consequences." (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)Less
MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — The Latest on U.N. climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco (all times local):
3:25 p.m.
Over 300 U.S. businesses have signed a statement calling on President-elect Donald Trump to support the Paris Agreement on climate change — including General Mills, eBay, Intel, Unilever, and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies.
Their statement reads "implementing the Paris Agreement will enable and encourage businesses and investors to turn the billions of dollars in existing low-carbon investments into the trillions of dollars the world needs to bring clean energy and prosperity to all."
The statement is addressed to Trump, President Barack Obama and members of Congress. It calls on elected U.S. officials to maintain the country's policy and financial commitments to lower carbon emissions.
Lara Birkes, chief sustainability officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, says "the Paris Agreement was a vital step forward, but its power is in our collective action."
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1:55 p.m.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says failing to fight climate change would be a "moral failure, a betrayal of devastating consequences."
With 2016 on track to be the hottest year on record, Kerry said the impacts of global warming are so evident that "at some point, even the strongest skeptic has to acknowledge that something disturbing is happening."
Kerry was speaking Wednesday at a U.N. climate conference in Marrakech. He also says that he doesn't think U.S. emissions reduction pledges "can or will be reversed" because of the market mechanisms in play.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called global warming a "hoax."
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1:30 p.m.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says an "overwhelming majority" of Americans know that climate change is happening and want the U.S. to honor its commitments under the Paris climate agreement.
Speaking Wednesday at a U.N. climate conference in Marrakech, Kerry praised the Paris deal as a framework that is "built to last."
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called global warming a "hoax" and pledged during the campaign to "cancel" the Paris deal aimed at fighting climate change.
Kerry, however, says he doesn't think U.S. emissions reduction pledges "can or will be reversed" because of the market mechanisms in play.
Countries need to 'roll up sleeves', make Paris climate deal happen: Masagos
- Posted 17 Nov 2016 08:41
- Updated 17 Nov 2016 08:50
SINGAPORE: History will judge the Paris Agreement not just by how many countries signed it or how quickly it entered into force, but also how effectively countries implement it, Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said on Wednesday (Nov 16).
The Paris accord, sealed late last year in the French capital, commits countries to make plans to keep global warming "well below" 2°C above pre-industrial levels to try to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Speaking at the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-22), Mr Masagos said that the agreement entering into force less than a year after it was adopted was "testament to the fact that with strong political will, countries can set their differences aside and work towards a common global imperative".
"We must now prove that we can, individually and collectively, take actions to achieve the aims of this agreement," he said. "We must now roll up our sleeves and make it happen."
Singapore was one of the first 55 countries to ratify the agreement on Sep 21 and is "proud to have contributed to the agreement's early entry into force", the Minister said.
He urged more countries to ratify the agreement as "a strong global response to climate change requires universal participation".
In the meantime, Mr Masagos said that the next priority would be to develop the rulebook for the Paris deal with a "cooperative and pragmatic spirit".
There have been clashes between parties in the negotiation of the agreement, including Australia and New Zealand blocking a bid from low-lying Pacific island nations for a tougher global target and disagreements between France and the US on whether the deal should be legally binding.
Mr Masagos said that while developing the rulebook for the Paris accord, "it is imperative that parties look forward and not backwards".
"We need to move on together and avoid renegotiating resolved issues that will only divide us," he added.
SINGAPORE "ON TRACK" TO MEET PRE-2020 PLEDGE
The Environment and Water Resources Minister said at the conference that Singapore was "on track" to meet its pre-2020 pledge under the agreement, according to the climate action plan it released in July.
For example, to reduce emissions from power generation, Singapore aims to raise the adoption of solar power in its system to 350 Mega Watt peak by 2020, an 18 times increase as compared to 2014.
"We are also undertaking various actions to enhance our resilience to climate change. For example, the future Changi Airport Terminal 5 will be built 5.5m above the mean sea level," Mr Masagos said.
"As a small city-state, Singapore needs to plan for climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of our unique constraints of land, energy and water. Notwithstanding these constraints, we will do our part as a responsible member of the international community," he added.
Singapore was one of 170 countries to welcome the Montreal Protocol to phase down the use of hydroflorocarbons, a category of dangerous greenhouse gases widely used in refrigerators and air conditioners, last month.
The country will be submitting its second biennial update report on its efforts to fulfill its pre-2020 pledge under the agreement in December this year, according to Mr Masagos.
- CNA/mz
Global climate change accord seen slowed, not halted, by Trump
- Posted 18 Nov 2016 22:50
MARRAKESH, Morocco: President-elect Donald Trump's plan to quit a landmark 2015 accord to fight climate change is likely to dent rather than derail the pact, with almost 200 governments defiantly saying this week that a trend towards cleaner energy is irreversible.
The 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 20 years in the making, won a renewed vote of confidence from governments from China to Saudi Arabia and companies who foresee a shift from fossil fuels towards solar and wind power as technology prices fall.
Trump has called man-made climate change a hoax and says he will pull out of the Paris deal and will instead bolster the domestic coal, oil and shale industries. The battle between the two rival visions will shape how fast the world tackles climate change.
"An alliance from California to Germany to China is emerging and they stand for the new economy. Trump, (Turkish President Tayyip) Erdogan and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin stand for the old economy," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
"It's the economy, stupid, but it's the new economy," he said, borrowing a catchphrase of former U.S. president Bill Clinton's successful 1992 election campaign.
Almost 200 nations at two-week talks on climate change in Marrakesh, Morocco agreed a statement on Thursday night that the fight against climate change was an "urgent duty" and "irreversible", and reaffirming support for the Paris Agreement.
Still, Trump's threats cast a long shadow, with worries ranging from a drying-up of U.S. climate finance for developing nations to a spread of nationalist, populist sentiment that could undermine global action to limit greenhouse gases.
Shares in First Solar Inc , the largest U.S. solar equipment maker, have fallen 7 percent since the U.S. election. By contrast, shares in U.S. coal producer Peabody , in bankruptcy proceedings, have surged 24 percent.
RISKS FOR CLIMATE ACTION
Many note that Trump has often changed positions - in 2009, he signed a call for U.S. action on climate change to avert "catastrophic and irreversible consequences".
"I believe a wise leader will follow the historical trend and we shall have faith in that," China's top climate change negotiator Xie Zhenhua said. Average world temperatures this year are set to be the warmest on record, beating 2015.
The Paris Agreement, which entered into force on Nov. 4, aims to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of this century to limit floods, droughts, heat waves, extinctions of animals and plants and a rise in sea levels.
Hundreds of businesses including DuPont, Gap, General Mills, Hewlett Packard, Nike, Mars Incorporated, Schneider Electric, Starbucks and Unilever also reaffirmed action on climate change during the Marrakesh talks.
"Donald Trump is our peer in the real estate industry," said Wang Shi, the founding chairman of Vanke, one of China's biggest property companies. "We will still rally together with U.S. companies and NGOs to move forward" if Trump drops out.
Still, there are risks for climate action.
Trump's promises to drop out of all U.N. climate programs could jeopardise a plan by rich nations to provide US$100 billion in funds a year by 2020, from public and private sources, to help developing nations cope with global warming.
Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University's environmental eonomics programme, likened the impact of Trump's election on climate change to an engine problem for a bus that had been speeding on a freeway from New York to California.
"Do we let the bus grind to a halt for four years, maybe eight? Or do we say 'we can keep going in the right direction, but at a much slower speed?'" he said, urging the latter.
Delegates say any setback is likely to be less than the near-mortal blow when former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001 decided against joining the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that bound about 40 other developed nations to cut emissions.
Badly wounded, Kyoto only entered into force in 2005 and now has the backing of only the European Union and a few allies.
The Paris Agreement, built on a looser model proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, lets all nations set their own goals to curb emissions with no penalties for non-compliance.
Another problem for climate diplomacy is that governments will have no breakthroughs in 2017. They began work in Marrakesh on a detailed set of rules for the often vaguely-worded Paris Agreement, likely to take two years until 2018.
(Additional reporting by Megan Rowling; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
- Reuters
Dogged by Trump, UN climate talks wind down
- Posted 18 Nov 2016 20:22
- Updated 18 Nov 2016 20:30
MARRAKESH: A UN climate summit in Marrakesh tasked with implementing the hard-won Paris Agreement moved toward its scheduled close on Friday (Nov 18), dogged by Donald Trump's promise to abandon the landmark pact.
The 196-nation forum was stunned to see an avowed climate change denier capture the White House, and has been left to ponder the impact that could have on their collective effort to beat back the threat of global warming.
On Thursday, the conference sought to shore up their commitment with a rare united appeal.
"Our climate is warming at an alarming and unprecedented rate and we have an urgent duty to respond," the 196 nations, including the outgoing US administration, said in the "Marrakesh Action Proclamation".
"We call for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority."
Many fear that US president-elect Trump - who has described climate change as a "hoax" perpetrated by China - will act on his threat to withdraw from the Paris accord or its framework convention, which could roll back years of painstakingly negotiated political goodwill.
It would also deprive poor countries of billions of dollars in promised finance aid, to help them shift to clean energy and shore up defences against climate change impacts that can no longer be avoided.
"We have to work on facilitating access to finance," Moroccan foreign minister Salaheddine Mezouar, who has taken over stewardship of the UN talks from France, said on Friday.
"There's no doubt that if Mr. Trump makes sharp cuts to the federal government support of developing countries, that will be noticed and have an impact," veteran climate negotiations analyst Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists told AFP.
The Paris pact sets the goal of limiting average global warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
NO BACKTRACKING
That can only be achieved by rapidly slashing greenhouse gas emissions generated by the burning of fossil fuels, scientists say.
Countries - including the United States - have pledged to do so under the deal by shifting to renewable energy sources.
But Trump has vowed to boost oil and gas production, and to revive the sagging US coal industry, battered mainly by the rise of natural gas from fracking.
Experts say global warming over 2°C will result in land-gobbling sea level rise, worsening storms and droughts, disease spread and conflict over ever-scarcer resources.
Highlighting the stakes, US government scientists said Thursday that the first 10 months of the year were the hottest in modern times - and 2016 will likely surpass 2015 as the warmest year on record.
On current trends, the world is headed for warming of 3°C or more, a recipe for human misery on a global scale, they warn.
Without the US, delegates and analysts say, the goal will be even harder to reach.
"The chances of the rest of the world contributing the emissions reductions commitments that the US is required to undertake, or covering the shortfall in climate finance that the US is required to contribute, is unlikely to happen," said Mohamed Adow of Christian Aid, which monitors the climate negotiations on behalf of poor countries.
"That is scary."
While waiting for the in-coming US president to make his climate position clear, many now look to the rest of the world to bolster the Paris Agreement.
The BASIC group of Brazil, South Africa, India and China, stressed they would "continue and strengthen" their own actions, while stressing "there can be no backtracking on commitments from developed countries and no attempt to renegotiate the terms of the agreement reached in Paris".
Mezouar announced Friday that the next high-level climate meet would take place at the end of next year in Bonn, Germany, but be presided by Fiji. "It is the first time that a small island state, and one from the Pacific, will organise a COP," he told journalists.
- AFP/ec
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