Today was the day of the one-day United Nations Climate Summit. Expectations were not high
for this one.
Officially, Tuesday's summit is not part of the formal negotiations taking place over the next year, as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Those negotiations will culminate with international climate talks in Paris, in the fall of 2015—and, if environmentalists get their way, some kind of binding global agreement that reduces greenhouse gases at a significant rate.
Unofficially, Tuesday's summit is an indicator of how ready the world is to take action—five years after major polluters left Copenhagen without a binding treaty. And so far there are some worrisome signs.
Those signs being a massive funding gap and less-than-urgent rhetoric from the world's top polluters. There have been, however,
positive moments as well.
Endorsed by over 30 countries, including the United States, all members of the E.U., and many tropical forest countries, the New York Declaration on Forests aims to at least halve the rate of loss of natural forests globally by 2020 and strives to end natural forest loss by 2030. It also supports the private-sector goal of eliminating deforestation from the production of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy, paper, and beef products by no later than 2020. More than 40 major companies, including Kellogg’s, Walmart, and McDonalds also endorsed the deal. The group also pledged to restore more than one million square miles of forest worldwide by 2030.
President Obama addressed the General Assembly earlier today, announcing that America would reduce its consumption of HFCs by eighty percent by 2050 and promising a new national carbon emissions target by early next year.
None of this is without controversy. In each of our countries, there are interests that will be resistant to action. And in each country, there is a suspicion that if we act and other countries don't that we will be at an economic disadvantage. But we have to lead. That is what the United Nations and this General Assembly is about. [...]
Today, I’m directing our federal agencies to begin factoring climate resilience into our international development programs and investments. And I’m announcing a new effort to deploy the unique scientific and technological capabilities of the United States, from climate data to early-warning systems. So this effort includes a new partnership that will draw on the resources and expertise of our leading private sector companies and philanthropies to help vulnerable nations better prepare for weather-related disasters, and better plan for long-term threats like steadily rising seas.
You can read President Obama's full remarks to the General Assembly
here.