US House rejects Obama climate change regulations

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Janos Pasztor, like others, was optimistic about chances for a successful climate deal in an interview with The Associated Press.

It is the latest chapter in a 25-year-old diplomatic saga marked by spats over burden-sharing and hobbled by a negotiation system of huge complexity.

Asked about his private meeting with Putin, Obama said he is confident that Russian Federation will eventually realize that a successful campaign against the Islamic State will require Assad’s removal from power – but that might not happen for some time. In India, climate change will have very concrete effects, which will carry major political consequences.

“That’s going to be critical in us having high ambitions and holding each other accountable”, he said. Paris is still on alert after the terrorist attacks that struck there on November 13 that killed 130 people. The conference aims to save the planet by attempting to reach mutual agreements on the reduction of carbon emissions and a two degrees Celsius limit on global warming.

“We are really up against the clock and up against the wall”, Daniel Reifsnyder, one of the talks’ co-chairs, told the negotiators on Tuesday morning.

Poorer countries want the developed nations to put more effort into solving the problem because they have contributed more to it since the days of the industrial revolution. He proposed limiting the rise in global temperatures since the start of the Industrial Revolution to less than 2 C and revising emissions reduction targets every five years.

Disagreement over how to share responsibility for curbing emissions is one of the thorniest issues, and developing nations have accused richer countries of hypocrisy for demanding they cut their use of fossil fuels after carbon-burning their way to prosperity.

On Monday, rich countries announced a new fund to do exactly that, pledging a total of $248 million to it. The Obama administration didn’t specify where its $51 million pledge would come from; Obama has struggled to persuade the Republican-run Congress to fund his climate goals, amid concerns that his energy plan is unattainable.

Meanwhile, amid the talks near Paris, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives was directly challenging President Obama’s environmental policies, scheduling votes on Tuesday afternoon that would strike down rules on reducing carbon emissions from power plants, both current and future.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he would accept a Paris climate agreement that has some “legally binding” elements, setting up a battle with Senate Republicans who insist on the right to ratify on any deal that would have force of law in the United States.

President Barack Obama departed Paris Dec. 1 urging almost 200 nations negotiating a global climate deal to ignore what he said are inevitable reports that another year of talks are doomed to failure and strive instead to complete the first truly global climate accord when the summit here ends Dec. 11.

Agreement on a substantive plan to fight climate change will come down to how long people are willing to pay for the disastrous damage to the planet that human consumption of fossil fuels is causing. Solutions exist, and there is already growing momentum around climate action as more and more governments, businesses, groups, and individuals recognize that it’s in their own interest to act on climate change.