Obama Praises, Sen. McConnell Blasts Global Climate Change Pact

By Published on December 13, 2015

President Obama hailed the approval of a far-reaching global climate accord to limit greenhouse gas emissions adopted Saturday in Paris, in a statement from the White House Cabinet Room Saturday afternoon.

Praising the pact as a ‘turning point for the world,’ Obama commended leaders from more than 190 countries for working together “to show what is possible when the world stands as one.”

Leaders of the many nations involved had been negotiating the pact for four years after earlier attempts to reach such a deal failed.

Loud applause shook the large Paris conference hall where the talks were being held after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gaveled final approval of the agreement earlier in the day. Some delegates started crying. Others embraced.

“In short, this agreement will mean less of pollution that threatens our planet. Full implementation of this agreement and will pave the way for more progress in stages over the years. It sends a powerful signal: a low carbon future, in clean energy at a scale we have never seen before.” Obama said.

 The pact, known as “the Paris agreement,” is supposed to take effect in 2020 and strives to limit global temperature rise even more, to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Sky News reported that countries most vulnerable to climate change had lobbied for the 1.5C limit while big polluters such as China, India and Saudi Arabia preferred 2C.

In his remarks, Obama also hit back at critics and “skeptics [who] said these actions would kill jobs.”

“Instead … we have driven our economic output to all-time highs in nearly two decades.”

“All countries have a role to play in climate change, wind and solar [energy] …creating a new and steady stream of middle class jobs,” Obama said.

Responding to the climate pact’s approval, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called its goals “unattainable,” and slammed Obama’s claims about what the international deal would achieve:

“The President is making promises he can’t keep, writing checks he can’t cash, and stepping over the middle class to take credit for an ‘agreement’ that is subject to being shredded in 13 months,” the Senate’s top Republican, and a staunch Obama critic, said in a statement released following the speech.

Read the article “Obama Praises, Sen. McConnell Blasts Global Climate Change Pact” on foxnews.com.

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