As President-elect Donald Trump shapes his administration, international environmentalists are anxiously hoping that Washington would stay the course on addressing climate change.
Republicans have largely espoused a different approach to climate change and reasons for environmental degradation than the Democratic administration of Barack Obama, which will be replaced by the Trump Administration on January 20, 2017.
The US has been a leader on efforts toward stemming climate change-related rise in temperature in the last few years when hottest months and years on record have been accompanied by flooding, massive rains, and droughts in several parts around the world.
Reacting to uncertainties raised by the November 8 US presidential election, President of the ongoing COP 22 Conference, Salaheddine Mezouar, who is Moroccon Foreign Minister said that the participants of the Marrakech Conference remained “confident.”
He advocated that it was necessary “to stay the course” and “keep this extraordinary momentum.”
The US, China and other industrialized nations contribute significantly to global warming and air pollution.
According to the United Nations, dozens of heads of State and Government are expected on Tuesday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 22), which started in Marrakech, Morocco, on 7 November 2016.
The event takes place ten days after the entry into force of the landmark Paris Agreement and conclude on November 18.
Countries are looking to define the rules for the accord and to lay out a viable plan for providing at least $100 billion a year to developing countries to support climate action.
The Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 States Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last December, aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The accord entered into force in record time on 4 November 2016.
A UN statement said during the first week of COP 22, in parallel with the negotiations between the Parties, a series of thematic days on forests, water, cities, energy and transport highlighted the crucial role of non-state actors, including businesses, cities and non-governmental organizations, to implement the Agreement.
On Saturday, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, co-host of COP 22, welcomed the fact that 105 countries have now ratified the Paris Agreement. “It gives the Agreement a lot of weight and a lot of credibility”, she said at a press conference.
“It has happened in record time”, she added. “So we really hit the ground with this unexpected success in many ways of the entry into force of the Agreement much earlier than expected. But now at the same time we have more urgency to get to work and finalize the elements we need in order to have a fully operational Paris Agreement”.
President of COP 22, Mezouar underscored “an extremely positive state of mind, a commitment of everyone to maintain the momentum and help COP 22 be the one we all wanted, a COP of action, a COP of commitment, a COP that confirms the determination of all Parties, the international community as a whole, to continue climate action”.
He stressed that the main priorities of the Moroccan Presidency of COP 22 are to create a bridge between “the world of negotiations and the world of action”, to get Parties to increase their national commitments, to focus on climate finance and to transform climate initiatives launched at COP 21 into concrete projects.
