UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The only thing rising faster than heat-trapping gases Tuesday were the statements of urgency by world leaders, who told each other at a United Nations summit how seriously they take global warming. Binding commitments and action are to come.
President Barack Obama pressed other countries to follow the United States’ lead on the issue, even as the summit revealed the many obstacles that stand in the way of wider agreements to reduce heat-trapping pollution.
“The United States has made ambitious investments in clean energy and ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions,” Obama said. “Today I call on all countries to join us, not next year or the year after that, but right now. Because no nation can meet this global threat alone.”
But none of the pledges made at the one-day meeting was binding. The largest-ever gathering of world leaders to discuss climate was designed to lay the groundwork for a new global climate-change treaty. It also revealed the sharp differences that divide countries on matters such as deforestation, carbon pollution and methane leaks from oil and gas production:
– Brazil, home to the Amazon rainforest, said it would not sign a pledge to halt deforestation by 2030.