In slap at Obama, GOP-led House moves to block climate rule

Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the conference “is not a finish line, but a new starting point” and that any agreement must take into account the differences among nations.

“I know some have asked why the world would dedicate some of our focus right now to combating climate change- even as we work to protect our people and go after terrorist networks”, Obama said.

Nicaragua’s lead negotiator Paul Oquist said Tuesday his country would not make any pledge to cut its emissions because that would let rich countries off the hook. His declaration was both a boost to climate negotiators seeking a tough accord and a challenge to Republican senators, many of whom don’t believe that global warming is real.

“As the president urges action to fulfill his personal climate legacy in Paris, the American people and their representatives in Congress have strongly voiced opposition to any deal that is reached and will not tolerate American tax dollars being used for an economically disastrous policy”. While some progress has been made in raising this money for 2020, for which the countries got eight years, there is no clarity on how this money will be made available every year after that.

Almost 190 countries have submitted national climate action plans, known as intended nationally determined contributions (INDC), that they have pledged to deliver under a global climate deal.

Brazil and Norway declared they will extend their partnership to preserve Brazil’s rain forests; and Britain, Germany, and Norway announced an aim to provide $1 billion per year for the next five years as incentive for countries to pursue emissions-reduction goals set out by the United Nations.

In Paris, Obama said the specific targets each country is setting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may not have the force of treaties, but it’s critical that “periodic reviews” of those commitments be legally binding.

A man enters the German pavilion during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, on Tuesday.

Canada’s Environment Minister Catherine McKenna acknowledged that, while a legally binding treaty would be desirable, it is more important to have the US and major emitters like China, be part of any agreement that emerges in Paris.

The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan requires states to cut carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030, based on emissions in 2005. The rule is the first mandate in history for carbon limits on power plants. These are mostly in countries that are so poor they barely contribute anything to the greenhouse gas emissions.

He also stressed there was only so much the United States could do when there so many nations polluting the planet. At the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged Chinese cooperation on climate and the war on terror.

This will be the largest gathering ever of world leaders, according to The Associated Press.

The president called climate change a massive, generational problem that is “about the hardest thing for any political system to absorb” because its effects are gradual, diffuse, and often difficult to measure.

Also jetting in to attend the conference are former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed the landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which has greatly increased energy costs, and current Gov. Jerry Brown, who, before leaving California, blasted Republican governors and members of Congress for denying climate change.