Democratic members of Congress say the United States remains committed to the Paris climate accord despite President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 agreement
The Latest on the COP21 climate summit in Madrid (all times local):
10:20 a.m.
Democratic members of Congress say the United States remains committed to the Paris climate accord despite President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 agreement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience Monday at this year’s U.N. climate meeting in Madrid that “we’re still in it.”
Pelosi, who led a delegation of more than a dozen members of Congress to the Spanish capital, said climate change poses a threat to public health, the economy and national security.
The congressional group is separate from the official U.S. delegation at the ‘COP25’ conference, which is led by Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, a senior State Department official.
The United States technically remains a member of the Paris accord until Nov. 4, 2020.
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8:35 a.m.
Delegates from almost 200 countries have begun a two-week international climate conference in Madrid that seeks to step up efforts to stop global warming.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that the efforts so far are insufficient to overcome the “point of no return” in climate change.
“What is lacking is political will,” Guterres told reporters on the eve of the COP25 meeting, which opened Monday.
The summit, which moved to the Spanish capital after Chile had to pull out amid anti-government protests, aims to put the finishing touches to the rules governing the 2015 Paris accord.
That involves creating a functioning international emissions-trading system and compensating poor countries for losses they suffer from rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change.
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