What we want from the Paris climate agreement

In a letter sent to US and worldwide leaders ahead of a global climate summit in Paris this month, Paxton and his West Virginia counterpart Patrick Morrisey said it would be dishonest for President Obama to make promises to cut carbon emissions just as they and other attorneys general are challenging the legality of the policy. In April, the two-term Democratic president said a changing climate, a dynamic which has existed since the earth’s creation, posed a far greater threat than terrorism.

We invite all concerned citizens to come together to generate a powerful collective energy focused on a strong and effective climate change agreement.

Obama will also meet with French President Francois Hollande, as well as with leaders of island nations such as the Seychelles and Marshall Islands that are threatened by rising sea levels. Interior Secretary Sally Jewel, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also will attend, as will Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Administrator Kathryn Sullivan. He said India had “never blocked” progress during the climate change talks and, instead, has pledged climate change actions beyond its required fair share.

There follows a section on bolstering worldwide cooperation and assisting other countries in reducing emissions.

Meantime, BC Senator Nancy Green Raine is among those concerned the zeal some politicians have to be seen to be protecting the world risks bending our economy out of shape, and could lead to summit promises which will have unnecessary and negative economic impact.

The USA delegation does not want the emissions targets themselves to be legally binding.

A senior official at the Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change said, “The profound truth is that it will be very hard to get the developed world to live up to their commitment of $100 billion a year that they have been repeating since 2009”.

“India has been more cautious, a little more restrained in its embrace of this new paradigm, and it’s a challenge”, he said. “If we go for the strongest of the options in all of the categories of decision making, we could have a real treaty that gets us to a much better place”, said May. “We have seen encouraging signs of support from Republicans”.

“Right now, we know that with the collective total of commitments, even if all the countries meet the commitments they’ve currently promised, we don’t avoid 2 degrees”.