There has been no shortage of hype and hate surrounding the United States’ role in these climate talks. President Obama was easily amongst the most anticipated and listened to speakers when the festivities began last Monday at Le Bourget, and, much in the same vein, many have been waiting for Secretary of State John Kerry to formally address the media here in week two as Foreign Ministers from around the world try to close out a deal. He did that yesterday here in Paris, holding the conference’s most tightly controlled presser to date early in the afternoon just before the new draft agreement was released.
There has been much lip service given in recent months by this administration about climate change, our country’s historic role in creating the problem, and, above all, a desire to rectify that. That being said, should you talk with representatives from many less-fortunate nations and civil society groups here on the inside of COP21, you will hear plenty of America bashing, especially when it comes to financing and the binding nature of carbon-cutting commitments. Simply put, many think the U.S. needs to do more.
No doubt with that in mind, Secretary Kerry, himself a veteran of numerous COPs, delivered a speech ripe with rhetoric as well as actual promises. Chief among them was a pledge to double the U.S.’s contribution to the Global Climate Fund, a mechanism that will help distribute cash to nations in throes of climate-induced peril. Originally, the U.S. had pledged $3 billion towards the estimated $100 billion needed. Now, according to Kerry, the U.S. will deliver $6 billion by 2020. “We will not leave the most vulnerable states amongst us to, quite literally, weather the storm,” he said.