{"id":6004,"date":"2015-11-30T14:06:46","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T21:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/envirobeat.com\/?p=6004"},"modified":"2016-01-13T22:44:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T05:44:48","slug":"president-obamas-opening-statement-at-cop21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/?p=6004","title":{"rendered":"President Obama’s opening statement at COP21"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 30, 2015, Paris<\/p>\n

The 21st Conference of the Parties, COP21, officially opened today in Paris. President Obama was one of\u00c2\u00a0many world leaders\u00c2\u00a0who\u00c2\u00a0spoke at the aptly titled \u00c2\u00a0“Leaders Event”.<\/p>\n

Obama’s presence\u00c2\u00a0on the opening day of these climate negotiations stood in stark contrast to his last minute appearance years earlier in the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, \u00c2\u00a0where closed door meetings were followed by an all night general session which strained\u00c2\u00a0the consensus process and resulted in the contentious\u00c2\u00a0Copenhagen Accord.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Barack<\/a>

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’ve come here personally as the leader of the worlds largest economy and the second largest emitter to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, but we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ~ Barack Obama<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking in even tones, encouraging cooperation and a positive outcome, Obama’s statement today volunteered\u00c2\u00a0a conciliatory acknowledgement of\u00c2\u00a0the role the United States has played in creating the climate problem and “embracing” the responsibility to do something about it.<\/p>\n

Obama invoked many familiar themes – innovation, jobs, protecting future generations, and the idea\u00c2\u00a0that\u00c2\u00a0economic growth is compatible with reducing emissions.<\/p>\n

\"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last<\/a>


\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last year the global economy grew while global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels stayed flat. And what this means can’t be overstated: We have broken the old arguments for inaction. We’ve proved that strong economic growth and a safer environment no longer have to conflict with one another, they can work in concert with on another. And that should give us hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ~Obama<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Here<\/a>

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Here in Paris let’s secure an agreement that builds in ambition, where progress paves the way for regularly updated targets, targets that are not set for each of us by but by each of us, taking into account the differences that each nation is facing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ~ President Obama<\/p><\/div>\n

See full text of Obama’s statement.<\/a><\/p>\n

Report by James George<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 30, 2015, Paris The 21st Conference of the Parties, COP21, officially opened today in Paris. President Obama was one of\u00c2\u00a0many world leaders\u00c2\u00a0who\u00c2\u00a0spoke at the aptly titled \u00c2\u00a0“Leaders Event”. Obama’s presence\u00c2\u00a0on the opening day of these climate negotiations stood in stark contrast to his last minute appearance years earlier in the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6004"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6333,"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions\/6333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirobeat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}