The White House has pledged to cut carbon emissions by up to 28 per cent but some commentators warn that the plan does not go far enough.
Washington's formal, five-page proposal to the United Nations is intended to be part of a global agreement on climate change. The White House said the new plan "would build on the historic progress we've already made to cut carbon pollution and protect public health by reducing emissions 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Some organisations and commentators say Obama's pledge does not go far enough. Oxfam said Washington must make deeper emissions cuts to help keep warming below 2C and "avoid catastrophic climate change".
Birgit van Munster, of the Homo Sapiens Foundation, said: "If all humanity follows the example [of the first countries to submit pledges] we will be more than 700% over the likely emissions limit [needed] to limit global warming to less than 2C, and if this trend continues humanity will proceed to go beyond 5C, the end of human life on earth as we know it."
-
Shell’s North Sea oil U-turn: ‘a first victory in a longer war’?Speed Read Controversy after oil giant pulls out of proposed Cambo project
-
Fires, floods and storms: America’s ‘permanent emergency’ has begunSpeed Read This summer of climate horror feels like the ‘first, vertiginous 15 minutes of a disaster movie’, says The New York Times
-
Hot air and empty rhetoric: is the UK acting too slowly on climate change?Speed Read ‘Every day, new evidence accumulates that humanity is on an unsustainable path’
-
Germany floods: what led to this ‘once-in-a-century’ disaster?Speed Read Nearly 200 people died in Germany and Belgium; hundreds are still unaccounted for
-
Penguin colony at risk as Somerset-sized iceberg bears down on British overseas territorySpeed Read Several species face starvation if the icy giant blocks access to feeding grounds
-
‘Full of hot air’: climate experts exposed as academia’s most frequent flyersSpeed Read Study results trigger calls for environmentalists to ‘look in the mirror’
-
Mystery of millions of migrating birds dropping dead from US skiesSpeed Read Some experts believe the West Coast wildfires may be to blame for ‘unprecedented’ mass bird deaths in New Mexico
-
Americans warned not to plant mystery seeds being sent to homes nationwide from ChinaSpeed Read Officials say the unsolicited packages have been mailed to residents in at least 27 US states
