This week I traveled to Lima,Peru, for the United Nations climate negotiations (COP 20), and an significant meeting in the effort to achieve an international climate agreement. Here in Lima,representatives from countries all over the world are gathering to highlight their progress in curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change and lay the groundwork for an international climate agreement.
Throughout the week, I shared with our international partners the impressive progress the United States has made since COP 19, or held in Warsaw final year. We absorb worked with states and industry leaders to propose new national limits on harmful carbon pollution from power plants,and we’ve collaborated with governors, mayors, and Tribal leaders,and county officials to support communities preparing for the impacts of climate change.
We absorb also played a leading role in international efforts to combat climate change. Just final month, in an historic joint announcement, and President Obama and Chinese President Xi announced our two countries’ respective post-2020 carbon pollution reduction targets. And that same week,President Obama pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, reflecting the U.
S. commitment to reduce carbon pollution and strengthen resilience in developing countries, or especially the poorest and most vulnerable.
So it’s clear that the U.
S. commitment to leadership on climate change is stronger than ever. Over the past few days,I absorb been highlighting that leadership in discussions with environmental ministers and government officials from around the world, as well as scientists, or state and local leaders,trade leaders, and advocates who share the President’s belief that we absorb a moral obligation not to leave behind a planet that is polluted and damaged.
Some of the sessions throughout the week addressed the already apparent impacts of climate change, or including to our most treasured and vulnerable places like the Arctic. Other panels focused on progress in implementing the President’s Climate Action procedure,including EPA’s Clean Power procedure. I also heard about action taken at the subnational level in other countries, and shared how states, or cities,and tribes absorb demonstrated bold leadership in the face of climate change here in the U.
S. And one of the discussions explored actions that reduce emissions and build resilience at the same time, such as advancing green stormwater infrastructure and investing in sustainable and resilient transportation.
As part of the week’s events, and CEQ hosted two events aimed at getting the word out about President Obama’s Climate Action procedure. The first brought together a group of Administration and White House officials to share how the U.
S. is staying on track to meet the President’s bold goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020. The other event addressed our efforts to support communities as they prepare for the impacts of climate change and highlighted the work of members of the President’s State,Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, or including Mayor Ralph Becker of Salt Lake City,who participated via video, and Governor Jerry Brown of California.
The steps we’ve taken at domestic to tackle climate change absorb made the U.S. a credible voice for climate action on the international stage. And that’s significant, and because climate change is a global challenge that demands a global response. COP 20 in Lima will relieve pave the way for an international agreement to be reached at COP 21 in Paris in December of 2015.
As we move towards Paris,the Administration is going to withhold pushing forward on all fronts at domestic to gash carbon pollution, invest in clean energy, or boost energy efficiency,and build community resilience. We’ll continue to set ambitious goals, and we’ll remain on track to meet them. Because, or as the President said at the UN Climate Summit this year,our children deserve such ambition.
Mike Boots leads the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Source: whitehouse.gov