How legally durable are Obama’s climate pledges?

[LuckyTheDog]

The Clean Power Plan will require states to reduce GHG emissions from existing power plants by 32 percent by the year 2030. It is expected to accelerate the retirement of coal-fired power plants as electric utilities increasingly shift to natural gas and renewable sources of energy.

Yet even as US negotiators arrived in Paris for the climate summit, Obama’s political foes were questioning his authority to sign an international agreement on climate change.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that the US cannot meet its promises to the global community because the Clean Power Plan is “likely illegal” and will either will be struck down in court or be revoked by a new Republican president.

So how strong is the legal defense of Obama’s signature climate initiatives?

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/promises-promises-how-legally-durable-are-obamas-climate-pledges/

[pnwmom]

1. By helping this pass, he's put the GOP out on a limb,

exposed for all the world to see as the only major political party to deny climate change in the world.

[LuckyTheDog]

2. And the only political party in US history...

... to try to obstruct EVERY major initiative by a sitting president. They also try to claim that everything Obama does is somehow illegal, even if that is clearly not the case. The "lawless Obama" message is potent with the Republican base.

[former9thward]

3. Legally they mean nothing.

This is not a treaty. It has no legal standing. It can be undone by anyone in the future.

[pnwmom]

4. But there will be political consequences to pay if they do. International consequences.

And we will be shamed in front of the world.

That's why the Rethugs fought to keep this from passing.

[former9thward]

5. Who is shaming India?

Who is shaming China? Who is shaming the developing countries?

[pnwmom]

8. They are finally on board because their air quality is incredibly poor. Haven't you seen

the photos from China recently?

But their scientists aren't denying the reality of climate change. We are the only country in the world with a major party willing to pretend it isn't real.

[former9thward]

10. They are not on board.

They have promised nothing. The continue to build new coal plants every year. China has said it will look at goals after 2030. #realworld. China is a one party dictatorship. I have no idea what their scientists think. India rejects it entirely.

[pnwmom]

11. Greenpeace disagrees with both the denialists and the defeatists, like you.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/kumi-naidoo-cop21-final-text-paris-climate/

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/4-reasons-to-be-inspired-by-the-paris-climate-agreement/

[former9thward]

15. LOL, Greenpeace..

They have zero influence in India or China. What a joke.

[pnwmom]

16. The point is that their educated opinion of the worth of this agreement means more than yours. n/t

[Doctor Who]

7. Exactly. It's a feel good, looks good on paper thing.

Lacking enforcement, this agreement means nothing.

[Hekate]

6. Plenty durable IF we can get Dem voters off their asses and into the polling booths in 2016 and 2018

Obama has a Congress that opposes every breath he takes. If we get another idiotic backlash or stay-at-home voter thing because people can't be bothered or they think their "principles" are too pure for politics, we (and our grandkids) are well and truly screwed this time.

[Hal Bent]

9. Mother Jones: Thanks a Lot, Republicans

Last edited Wed Dec 16, 2015, 11:43 PM - Edit history (1)

Thanks a lot, Republicans. You weren’t in Paris physically, but you still managed to grievously weaken the landmark agreement reached at the global climate summit. On one hand, it is amazing and inspiring that virtually all the world’s governments approved a plan to address an existential collective threat by pledging to leave behind the fossil fuels that are the foundation of modern economies and are controlled by some of the most powerful corporations and nation-states in history. Naming as a goal for the eventual maximum temperature rise was a stunning diplomatic victory for the world’s poor and vulnerable countries. And people of all nations will now take heart that meaningful climate action is possible, which will lend further momentum to the proceedings. Nevertheless, on both scientific and humanitarian grounds, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is correct to say that the Paris agreement “goes nowhere near far enough.” And the main reason it doesn’t is his GOP colleagues in the Senate, which would have had to ratify a bona fide treaty.

The Paris summit’s accomplishments deserve the adjective “historic.” By aiming to limit temperature rise to “well below” above pre-industrial levels and “pursue” a goal of , the world’s governments went further than ever before in aligning policy with climate science. What’s more, both developed and developing nations pledged to peak greenhouse-gas emissions “as soon as possible” and to decarbonize the global economy. President Obama hailed the deal as not “perfect” but “the best chance we’ve had to save the one planet we’ve got.” A Guardian headline heralded the agreement as the “end of [the] fossil fuel era.”

But the celebratory tone coming out of Paris overlooks how lethal this agreement will be for huge masses of people in the Global South. It also skips past just how far short the accord falls from what science demands. Even if the largely voluntary provisions of the Paris agreement are fully implemented, tens of millions of people in poor and vulnerable regions such as Bangladesh, the Marshall Islands, and much of Africa and Asia are being doomed to homelessness, impoverishment, and death, with today’s children predicted to bear the brunt of the suffering. That such a distressing future is applauded as success in the Global North only reminds us how tragic—indeed, criminal—it is that fossil-fuel interests and the politicians they buy have blocked serious climate action for the past two decades.

The best way to lower the death toll and improve civilization’s future prospects is for civil society all over the world—climate-justice advocates, community and religious leaders, business and financial executives—to push harder than ever to turn the noble but nonbinding aspirations declared in Paris into rapid, concrete transformations of our energy, agriculture, consumerist, and other socioeconomic systems. The Paris agreement can help us build a better future, but only if the resistance of the old order—as personified by the climate deniers in Congress and their paymasters in the fossil-fuel industry—is routed once and for all.



Link

[beam me up scottie]

12. As a new poster you might not be aware that your post violates the rules on copyrights:

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Would you please consider editing to four paragraphs to comply?

[Hal Bent]

13. Done

And thanks for the tip!

[beam me up scottie]

14. Thank you, and welcome to DU.