NRDC President: Climate Change has “Met its Match in the Will of a United World”
PARIS (December 12, 2015) – Negotiators from nearly 200 countries today released the final text on an historic agreement that sets the world on a path of reducing the dangerous carbon pollution that's driving global climate change. The Paris climate agreement is expected to be approved later today.
Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who was in Paris for the climate talks, made the following statement today:
“A great tide has turned. Finally the world stands united against the central environmental challenge of our time, committed to cutting the carbon pollution that’s driving climate change.
“This agreement sets us on a course of verifiable gains we can build on over time. It provides real protection for people on the front lines of climate chaos. It speeds the global shift away from dirty fossil fuels and toward cleaner, smarter energy options to power our future without imperiling our world. And it sends a clear message to our children: we will not abandon you to pay the price for reckless habits that wreak havoc and ruin on our planet and lives.
“For Americans, this advances our mission to clean up our cars, trucks and dirty power plants, invest in efficiency and get more energy from the wind and sun. It requires nations that are major carbon polluters to do their part to curb their carbon footprint. And it helps to protect people everywhere from the growing dangers of climate change.
“A crisis that took centuries to get here won't go away overnight. But climate change has met its match in the collective will of a united world. Our challenge now, in our country and all others, is to make good on the promise of Paris, by turning the action we've pledged into the progress we need.”
For Rhea Suh's Paris journal, click here: http://on.nrdc.org/parisjournal
For more on NRDC and the Paris climate talks, click here: http://nrdcaction.org/paris/
For NRDC expert blogs on the Paris agreement and impact on the U.S., Canada, India, China and the region of Latin America, enter the tag “ParisClimate2015” here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/