WASHINGTON, Aug 28: Asserting that countries like India and China need to play a significant role in addressing the challenges of climate change, the Obama Administration has strongly refuted reports that it has reached any international agreement to combat the critical global issue.
Obama Administration’s refutation came after The New York Times reported that the United States was pushing for an international voluntary treaty on climate change.
“Not a word of the new climate agreement currently under discussion has been written, so it is entirely premature to say whether it will or won’t require Senate approval,” State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
“Our goal is to negotiate a successful and effective global climate agreement that can help address this pressing challenge. Anything that is eventually negotiated and that should go to the Senate will go to the Senate. We will continue to consult with Congress on this important issue,” she said.
The agreement hasn’t been written yet, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
“We’re pushing to broker the kind of an agreement that would tangibly have an impact on reducing the causes of climate change and the causes of the kinds of pollution that have such a detrimental effect on public health in this country and in communities all around the world,” he said.
“So we’re pushing hard on this. The President has played a leading role on this in the past and he is going to play a leading role on it this time. But in terms of what the details are going to be in that agreement, they haven’t even started writing the agreement yet so it’s hard for me to say,” he said.
He said Obama didn’t shy about trying to lead on the international stage on the issue of climate change.
“The President play an important role in Copenhagen in 2009 in trying to broker some agreements. In his conversations with leaders in India and China and other countries, the President talks regularly about joint steps that can be taken to reduce the causes of climate change,” he said.
Obama has articulated a number of times this year the need to address the threat that climate change poses both to human health and to the US economy.
“That’s why he put forward a comprehensive plan to cut carbon pollution and prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change while also leading an international effort to combat global climate change,” he said. (PTI)
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