The United Nations General Assembly convened on Tuesday Sep. 19th in Manhattan, NY. The discussion is expected to include a large focus on the U.S. role in the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Paris Climate Agreement addresses climate change through greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation efforts, and development of financial infrastructure to promote low carbon development. The agreement was adopted by consensus in December, 2015 at the 21^st^ Conference of Parties in Paris. As of September 2017, 195 members of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change have signed the agreement.
The Trump Administraton and the Paris Climate Deal
The U.S. is currently the second largest contributor of greenhouse gasses in the world. However, in a statement on June 1 of this year, President Trump announced his intent to withdraw from the agreement, calling it “very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States.”
This narrative from the administration began to change, however, in the time leading up to the UN General Assembly, culminating in media confusion the weekend preceding the meeting.
On Saturday Sep. 16^th^, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration may seek to avoid the withdrawal, quoting a White House official discussing the potential for the U.S. to “re-engage” in the deal.
Later that day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied the report, saying there was “no change” in the U.S. position on Paris.
On Sunday the 17^th^, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went on CBS news and said that the U.S. could stay in the Paris Agreement under the “Right Conditions.”
On Monday the 18^th^, White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn met with climate ministers from several countries. He made the U.S. position “unambiguous” and restated the administration’s intent to withdraw.
This confusion has led to much speculation as to how the U.S. will proceed with international climate action. For answers, focus will be on the UN General Assembly debates, which have long been a center for diplomatic efforts. These debates fall less than two months before the meeting of COP 23 in Bonn, Germany, in November to discuss the “Paris Rulebook,” a guide to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement. The conversations during the UN General Assembly this week are likely to define the extent of the U.S. contribution in authoring the rulebook.
International Action on Climate Change
Despite the administration’s uncertain position on international climate action, the international community has found some unusual allies within the United States. As the UN Debates proceed, the NY Times reported that Democratic Governors are playing “an increasingly conspicuous role on the international stage,” urging other countries to follow through on their emission reduction pledges and reaffirming the commitment of states, cities and businesses to meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Growing Bipartisan Support for Climate Action
Domestically, it appears that the U.S. Senate does not want to recuse themselves from negotiations on climate change either. During the Senate’s appropriations process, Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) proposed an amendment to S. 1780, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2018, to restore funding to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that the administration had stripped from its proposed budget. The amendment passed the Republican-led Appropriations Committee, with the support of Republican Senators Susan Collins (ME) and Lamar Alexander (TN) and all the democratic Senators on the committee except Senator Joe Manchin (WV). Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) did not vote.
The UNFCCC helps to facilitate the Paris Agreement and creates a framework for international cooperation to address climate change. The US entered the UNFCCC treaty under H.W. Bush in 1992 and has made payments every year since to support its functionality. The Senate vote indicates bipartisan support from Congress for continuing to engage in climate discourse.
We remain hopeful that through bipartisan action in Congress, as well as through the actions of business leaders, states, and local governments, the U.S. will remain involved in the international effort to address the global issue of climate change.
