President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce new ways the United States can help populations around the world combat climate change, which includes participating in more than a dozen new climate change partnerships and administering a new executive order that requires federal agencies to consider climate resilience in international development programs and investments, according to the White House.
Obama will speak Tuesday afternoon at the United Nations Climate Summit 2014, designed to showcase climate action commitments from governments, local leaders and the private sector in an effort to build toward a new global climate agreement due in 2015.
He will discuss the progress the U.S. has made under his Climate Action Plan to reduce emissions, partner with companies to advance clean energy solutions and energy efficiency and strengthen resilience to climate impacts.
The White House provides these successes: In 2012, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell to the lowest level in nearly two decades. Since Obama took office, wind energy production has tripled, and solar energy has increased by a factor of ten. This summer, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first carbon pollution standards for existing power plants, which account for a third of U.S. carbon pollution. Obama is helping state and local leaders reduce carbon pollution and prepare for the impacts of climate change through a $1 billion competition.
Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama arrive in New York late this morning for two days of speeches and meetings centered around the United National General Assembly meeting.
After the climate speech, Obama and former President Bill Clinton will hold a discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative about hoethe administration, other governments, non-governmental organizations and charities are defending and strengthening civil society globally.
A group of people calling themselves concerned New Yorkers will rally against fracking, which they say pollutes the air, outside of Obama's speech at the Clinton Global Initiative.
“President Obama has denied the science on natural gas, methane and fracking, refusing to acknowledge the inherent dangers and harms to Americans across the country and the climate,” according to a news release.