Obama Confident Paris Climate Deal Will Survive Despite 'Noise' From Republicans

摘要

Republicans may make a lot of "noise" about undoing a landmark international agreement on climate change struck in Paris Dec. 12 but ultimately will conclude attempting to kill the deal is not a smart thing to do, President Barack Obama said Dec. 18. That accord, reached after more than two weeks of United Nations negotiations between nearly 200 nations, sent an unmistakable market signal to investors that clean energy is the future and countries around the world are serious about tackling climate change, Obama said at an end-of-year press conference. "Do I think there's going to be a lot of noise and campaigning next year about how we're going to stop Paris in its tracks?" Obama asked. "There will probably be a lot of noise like that. Do I actually think that two years from now, three years from now even Republican members of Congress are going to look at it and say that's a smart thing to do? I don't think they will." Some Republicans in Congress and others running for president have criticized Obama for focusing so much energy on addressing climate change rather than international terrorism and have warned the Paris climate deal could harm the U.S. economy (46 ER 3849, 12/18/15).