U.S. will sign agreement despite CPP turmoil — Stern

Source: By Barbara Lewis, Reuters • Posted: Thursday, February 18, 2016

No matter what happens to the Clean Power Plan after the Supreme Court last week paused its implementation, the United States will sign later this year the climate change mitigation agreement reached in Paris in December, the country’s top climate envoy said yesterday.

“It is entirely premature, really premature to assume the Clean Power Plan will be struck down but, even if it were, come what may, we are sticking to our plan to sign, to join,” Todd Stern said. The United States will sign the Paris agreement on April 22 in a ceremony in New York City, even though the Supreme Court imposed a stay last week on President Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan (ClimateWire, Feb. 12).

Stern also said that even a Republican successor would be unlikely to back away from the deal because of the potential negative diplomatic implications of doing so (ClimateWire, Feb. 17).

“Paris was seen as such a landmark, hard-fought, hard-won deal that, for the U.S. to turn round and say we will withdraw, that would inevitably give the country a kind of diplomatic black eye that I think a president of any party would be very loath to do,” Stern said.