President urges tough stance in climate agreement

US President Barack Obama Obama holds a news conference at the conclusion of his visit to Paris December 1, 2015. “You can’t tear down Paris because of the demented actions of a handful of individuals”, Obama said. It’s a generational program. “And yet despite all that the main message I’ve got is, I actually think were gonna solve this thing”.

Nigel Purvis, a former USA climate negotiator and president of the non-governmental organization Climate Advisers, said Obama has all the legal authority he needs to enter an agreement where only some elements are binding.

The U.N. chief told reporters at U.N. headquarters in NY before flying back to Paris on Thursday night that this gave strong impetus to negotiations.

For the first time, the United States and China, the world’s two largest carbon producers, enter a climate change conference having made high-profile promises to substantially reduce carbon emissions.

Mr. Obama said other nations shouldn’t worry that the US will abandon his commitment to reducing emissions after he leaves office, predicting that a Democrat – presumably meaning Hillary Rodham Clinton – will win the presidency in 2016.

The presidency involves “not just playing to a narrow constituency back home”, but being “at the center” of world events, Obama said – one of which is a desire in most countries to do something about climate change.

Mr. Obama met earlier Tuesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and expressed support for Turkey in the wake of it shooting down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border last week.

The COP21 climate summit is now fully underway: the delegations from 195 countries represented here are meeting face to face, they’re taking decisions: who is responsible for what, who is gonna pay for what.

“Whoever is the next president of the United States, if they come in and they suggest somehow that that global consensus, not just 99.5% of scientists and experts, but 99% of world leaders, think this is really important”, he said.

Obama emphasized that action on climate change is a major part of American leadership.

She said “there was doubt before” about the US position.

In addition, he said Paris would triple to €1bn a year by 2020 its contribution to Africa’s battle with desertification and other climate change challenges.

“So, although everyone here is unified in the desire to address climate change, economic interests play a role as well”.

Leaders of small island nations are pleading for their survival, asking bigger countries to do more to cut emissions and help threatened nations cope with rising seas and wilder storms blamed on man-made global warming.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called climate change “one of the greatest threats humanity is facing”.

“We simply can not afford to continue polluting the planet at the current pace”, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said.