The United Nations top climate called American democracy “very detrimental” to fighting global warming.
Christiana Figueres, executive sectretary of the UNFCC, attends a Global Climate Fund forum at the opening ceremony of its headquarters in Songdo, Incheon on December 4, 2013. GCF is a fund within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that seeks to assist developing countries adapt to and also mitigate the impact of climate change. AFP PHOTO / Woohae CHO
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told Bloomberg News that she was also enamored that China, the top carbon emitter, is “doing in right” through enforced central planning to make improvements.
The Bloomberg story says, “The political divide in the U.S. Congress has slowed efforts to pass climate legislation and is 'very detrimental' to the fight against global warming, [Figueres] said.”
Figueres, 57, of Costa Rica, is charged with guiding more than 190 member nations of the UN to draft a new international treaty to fight global warming, with the goal of signing a treaty by next year to take effect in 2020. It would replace the Kyoto Treaty that was signed in 1997.
Figueres told Bloomberg that “In the U.S., the divided Congress is politicizing climate change and slowing down efforts to pass legislation.”
A Democratic Senate rejected a cap and trade bill that passed the Democratic House in 2009 supported by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. The Obama administration took executive action to decrease carbon emissions from vehicles. In another executive action, Obama is expected finalize new limits on power plant emissions.
On the other hand, China has adopted greater efficiently standards through its Central Committee to try to reverse course, without the concerns of the politics that comes with fights in U.S. Congress.
“They actually want to breathe air that they don’t have to look at,” she said. “They’re not doing this because they want to save the planet. They’re doing it because it’s in their national interest.”
(H/T: GlobalWarming.org)
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