This week, leaders from around the world are meeting in Paris to work out the future of global climate action.
But, while our President is overseas trying to come up with climate solutions, Republicans back in the states are undermining him at every turn. And, their typical obstruction could pose a threat to the entire Paris summit.
Rather than working on ways to solve our climate crisis, our Right-wing lawmakers have vowed to block $3 billion dollars that President Obama has pledged to help developing nations.
During the 2009 climate talks, trust broke down between developing and developed nations, and threatened to derail the entire summit. Thankfully, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton managed to save the talks by pledging to help raise $100 billion dollars in annual aid for developing nations.
A small part of that $100 billion dollar so-called "Green Climate Fund" was supposed to come from the United States, but Republicans are blocking our small contribution.
In a recent letter to President Obama, thirty-seven Republican Senators said, "We pledge that Congress will not allow U.S. Taxpayer dollars to go to the Green Climate Fund until the forthcoming international climate agreement is submitted to the Senate for its constitutional advice and consent."
In other words, they want to block the funding because they know that doing do could undermine the Paris talks, insult the president, and keep their oil-industry donors raking in massive profits.
Thankfully, many other developed nations have contributed their funds to the Green Climate Fund, which will help up-and-coming nations skip over the fossil fuel stage of their development. And, Democrats in Congress say that they won't make it easy for Republicans to back out of international commitments.
If we want to lead the world in the next century, we have to help the world make the switch away from last century's dirty energy. That means we need to help fund the clean development of the future. And, that means we need to tell our Republican lawmakers to stop trying to undermine the Paris Summit
-Thom
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