With U.S. Election in Sight, Ban Seeks Quick Action on Climate Accord

"WASHINGTON — As the United Nations General Assembly converges in New York on Tuesday, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is using the gathering of world leaders to rush the 2015 Paris climate change accord into legal force this year, hoping to bind all countries to its strictures for at least the next four years — regardless of the outcome of the presidential election in the United States.

Mr. Ban’s push to nail down the legal commitments of at least 55 countries to the global agreement comes as Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee who has called climate change a hoax, rises in the polls. Should Mr. Trump become president before the Paris pact enters into force, he could make good on his vow to withdraw the United States from the agreement — even if President Obama has signed on to it. The absence of the world’s largest economy and second-largest greenhouse gas polluter would cripple the first accord binding nearly every country to actions that would reduce planet-warming pollution.

“There’s a huge amount at stake in whether the United States is in the agreement or not,” said Robert C. Orr, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and a special adviser to Mr. Ban. A withdrawal by the United States would “create a global diplomatic crisis,” he said."
 
Coral Davenport reports for the New York Times September 12, 2016.
 
SEE ALSO:

"Brazil Ratifies Paris Agreement To Reduce Greenhouse Gases" (AP)

"August Ties July as Hottest Month Ever on Record" (Climate Central)