Obama: Climate change an economic, security imperative

The White House issued a veto threat last month, saying the resolutions undermine public health protections of the Clean Air Act and “stop critical US efforts to reduce risky carbon pollution from power plants”.

The president followed that up Tuesday with grim warnings for the near future if the temperature curve went unchecked.

Obama’s comments brought relief to the French hosts of the conference, who were anxious about whether the US wanted a binding deal at all after Secretary of State John Kerry told The Financial Times that the agreement was “definitely not going to be a treaty” and that there was “not going to be legally binding reduction targets”.

“I’ve been at this long enough where I have some cause for confidence”, Obama said.

“The American people should be suspicious of this administration when it continually impedes congressional oversight of its extreme climate agenda”, Smith said. The trend of global warming “will affect all trends”, Obama said, making it “an economic and a security imperative” for every country.

But, speaking after attending an historic climate summit with 150 other leaders, Obama voiced confidence mankind would make the tough decisions to brake rising temperatures.

Americans don’t think so, and other countries are pretty split on it, too.

Though he didn’t reference the recent comments of Republican presidential candidates in particular, he did seem aware of rhetoric from the GOP field on the subject of climate change.

“I would expect China to not lean forward very publicly because they need to stay aligned with the G-77 [group of developing countries]”. “He actually is somewhat naïve, if you want to know the truth, beyond the incompetent part”.

The president also addressed the recent shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado.

A statement issued by China on behalf of BASIC countries in the plenary extended support for an transparent and party driven process at the CoP21 and said that BASIC will work pragmatically with all other parties for an equitable and balanced climate agreement. “I worry that, put aside intentions, that this, these proposals could have an impact on the here and now, on people that are really struggling right now”.

Will climate change hurt me personally? “Great nations can handle a lot at once”.

“The government hasn’t clearly outlined conditions to access that capital, but it could be used as a tool to reward early action in jurisdictions that are leading on climate change in Canada”, she said, suggesting B.C. – which has the highest carbon tax in the country – could be near the front of the line.

Recognizing this possibility, a concerned President Barack Obama said part of the climate agreement soon to be hammered next week should be legally binding.

France and the USA have joined forces to carry out bombing raids on Isis in both Syria and Iraq, and both countries hope the British and the Russians will focus more attention on tackling the “terrorist group”. “We have to keep on going at it”, Obama said.

Obama spoke with reporters gathered at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in central Paris, about seven miles from where the climate talks are taking place in Le Bourget.

“I’m sure there will be moments over the next two weeks where progress seems stymied and everyone rushes to write that we are doomed”, he said. Much of the world has signed up to a goal of limited average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, a threshold scientists have argued could still avoid some of the worst effects of climate change.

Obama said the visit to the site of the slaughter was “a powerful reminder of the human toll of these attacks”.