UN chief praises Obama’s Clean Power Plan
Ban Ki-moon praised Barack Obama’s new clean power programme during a visit to the White House on Tuesday
The head of United Nations has praised Barack Obama’s new clean power programme during a visit to the White House on Tuesday, and the plan could be crucial for a successful global climate deal due to be agreed later this year.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the newly announced Clean Power Plan shows the United States can be a leader on climate change and clean energy, in a meeting in the Oval Office.
Obama said the “urgency of a world response” to the threat of climate change was the top priority at the meeting, which came a day after the U.S. president announced a plan to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from power plants across the country.
The new plan aims to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 32 per cent by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.
Each state in the US will be set an emissions reduction target and will be required to submit proposals to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on how the goals will be achieved.
Power stations are the largest source of GHGs in the US and coal-fired power currently generate more than a third of the country’s electricity supply.
Obama highlighted U.S. efforts on renewable energy and the country’s ambitious environmental targets in the build up to the key for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in the French capital from November 30 to December 11.
Obama said: “We need Paris to be a success, and the world has to step up in a concerted way on behalf of our children and future generations.”
Ban commended Obama’s strong commitment to climate change from his first day in office, noting his “visionary and bold” announcement Monday.
Ban said: “This Clean Power Plan powers economies and generates jobs. And also it can generate huge dividends here at home in the U.S. economy… And I am sure this will impact a lot of countries. And I really appreciate your personal engagement, starting with China, Brazil and India and many others.”
The 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) takes place in Paris at the end of the year and a global climate deal is expected to be signed by all UN-member states designed to limit average global temperature increases to below the 2°C that scientists believe would lead to catastrophic climate change impacts.
