Barack Obama to make US a leader on addressing climate change

US President Barack Obama said the world needs an enduring framework for addressing climate change and that he would seek an agreement that would boost economies as well as help the planet’s environment.

A strong climate pact would send a signal to researchers and investors that change is necessary and will spur energy innovation, Obama said at a news conference at the UN global climate summit in Paris.

He said he expected the United States could uphold its climate commitments to help other countries meet their energy goals.

“We still need a Paris agreement,” Obama said.

“So my main focus is making sure that the United States is a leader in bringing a successful agreement home.”

Obama said rising seas and warming climates could be a drain on economic resources.

“This is an economic and security imperative that we have to tackle now,” he said.

Obama says climate change is economic, security imperative: https://t.co/5RPus7Set2 pic.twitter.com/bpPsU4y6iL

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 1, 2015

President Obama said the best way to drive innovation and reduce carbon emissions is “to put a price on it” but he does not expect that from the current Republican-dominated US Congress.

“If you put a price on it, then the entire market would respond,” he told a news conference.

As people come to realise the costs of climate change, Obama said they will start to put a price tag on the damage it is doing.

Insurance companies are beginning to realise that in terms of how they price risk, he said.

He said the emerging global climate agreement must have transparency provisions and periodic reviews of carbon-cutting targets that are legally binding.

He said the specific targets each country is setting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may not have the force of treaties.

But he said to hold each other accountable, it is critical that “periodic reviews” be legally binding.

He was referring to a mechanism sought by negotiators under which countries would ratchet up their commitments every five years.

Whether the climate deal should be legally binding has been a major sticking point in the talks, in large part due to the US.

Obama would face dim odds at getting the Republican-run Congress to vote to approve a new climate treaty.

That set off a search for a compromise where parts of the deal are binding and others are not, sparing the need for a new vote in Congress.

He added that without ambitious action on climate change, people may be forced to flee island nations and will become refugees.

Meanwhile, France has promised €8 billion over the next five years for investment in renewable energy in Africa.

President Francois Hollande’s pledge came in a meeting with 12 African leaders about the threats from climate change, including coastal erosion, advancing deserts and rivers that are drying up.

“When a young student is forced to go study under a street lamp at night, it clearly demonstrates the electricity issue,” Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said.

Hollande said: “The world, and in particular the developed world, owes the African continent an environmental debt.”