Politico: ‘Obama’s fragile climate legacy’ – ‘Relies on the good will of Congress & next president to keep it in place’
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/climate-change-obama-paris-216716
The reliance on presidential authorities means that while Obama can take much of the credit for the agreement, its ultimate success is in the hands of the next administration.
“The President is making promises he can’t keep, writing checks he can’t cash, and stepping over the middle class to take credit for an ‘agreement’ that is subject to being shredded in 13 months,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.
Key parts of the Paris pact are nonbinding, the only way Obama could avoid seeking approval of the deal in Congress, something he knew would be impossible. He learned that lesson in his first term, when cap-and-trade legislation failed on Capitol Hill, prompting the Environmental Protection Agency to develop its own set of greenhouse gas rules. Those regulations are now at the mercy of the courts, which will decide over the coming years whether the president overstepped his authority as president.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/climate-change-obama-paris-216716#ixzz3uFSoyeHT…
‘Paris pact not enough to save the world’
After going through the fine print of the global climate agreement, New Delhi-based think-tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said it was a compromise deal and in many ways it could be termed “lowest minimum denominator”.
Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA), a coalition of over 141 civil society groups from South Asia, on the other hand, called the agreement “durable and dynamic” but said it had fallen short of being fully fair and responsive to future needs.
CSE noted the developing countries had got “words” and promises of money while developed countries had finally got rid of their historical responsibility of causing climate change. The think-tank said rich nations had no legally binding targets on quantum of finance ($100 billion) or emissions cuts.…
Kerry: U.S. would not elect a climate change skeptic
Dedication to fighting climate change will make or break a presidential candidate’s campaign, says Secretary of State John Kerry.
Coming off a fresh victory one day after nearly 200 countries approved a climate deal in Paris committed to putting a stranglehold on global warming, Kerry warned that for someone looking to be elected president, avoiding the fight to stop climate change puts him or her on the wrong side of history.
“I don’t believe you can be elected president of the United States if you don’t understand climate change or you’re not committed to this kind of a plan,” Kerry told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Saturday morning.…
Watch: Reporters shout, jump for joy after UN climate deal announced
Journalists appeared to erupt in cheers Saturday afternoon after representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed to adopt the Paris Agreement, a major accord vowing to fight global warming.
Before the climate change deal was announced formally by officials in Paris, members of the press reportedly gathered close to cover the event, watching anxiously from a large room on site to hear news of the final agreement.
“Watching [the Paris Agreement] close [with] other journos,” the Economist’s Miranda Johnson tweeted from the French capital.
She then compared the event to the suspense of watching a major 2002 soccer match between England and Brazil.
Then the moment of truth arrived: A representative announced that the deal had passed, and that 195 counties had agreed to work together to fight climate change.
The reaction from the journalists reportedly on hand was a mixture of excitement and unbridled jubilation, as a video Johnson uploaded to social media showed.
“WE HAVE A #ParisAgreement,” she exulted in a tweet.…
Obama: Climate change deal the ‘best chance’ to save planet
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/12/politics/obama-on-paris-climate-change-pact-we-met-the-moment/
Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama on Saturday hailed the acceptance of a final draft of an ambitious, global climate change agreement in Paris, calling it the “best chance” to save the planet.
“We came together around a strong agreement the world needed,” said Obama, speaking from the White House. “We met the moment.”
Obama added, “This agreement represents the best chance we have to save the one planet that we’ve got.”
The accord sets a goal of limiting average warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures — and of striving for a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) if possible.…
NYT’s Andrew Revkin on UN deal: ‘There’s a lot of magical thinking in all of this’
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Reprieve! Binding Paris treaty now voluntary mush
Reprieve! Binding Paris treaty now voluntary mush
http://www.cfact.org/2015/12/13/reprieve-binding-paris-treaty-now-voluntary-mush/
Obligating the United States to slash its fossil fuel use, and send billions of taxpayer dollars annually to dictators, bureaucrats and crony industrialists in poor countries would be disastrous. Thank goodness it did not happen. But we are not out of the woods yet.
— gReader Pro…
Only 12 Months To Save The World (Again)! – Already plans are being drawn up for the next UN jamboree in Morocco!
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/only-12-months-to-save-the-world-again/…
Praise be to the — UN!? UN Climate Summit Healed The Climate?!
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2015/12/13/cop-21-healed-the-climate/…
UN climate summit deal Dec. 12, 2015: ‘The Day Science Died’
https://stream.org/cop21-december-12-2015-day-science-died/
Climate statistician Dr. Matt Briggs:
Science was wheeled into COP21’s hall and was humiliated and made to suffer to the last. Scores of our planet’s leaders gathered round her and chanted, “We can stop climate change!”, “We must hold the earth’s temperature to a 2 degree increase!”, “The globe is warming out of control!”, “People are being inconvenienced by climate change!”
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The Paris Climate Conference has sworn it will spend $100 billion — or more! — a year to solve a problem that can’t be solved. The climate on earth has always changed, always will change, and can not stop changing. It is therefore impossible to “fight” against the impossible.
Science isn’t around to tell us that the earth’s climate stopped warming some twenty years ago. And she can no longer verify that since our climate models made such lousy forecasts for decades that the theory of carbon-dioxide-driven global warming is surely false. She won’t be there to reassure us that all the other predictions of climate doom failed to materialize.…