From Watts Up With That?
Essay by Eric Worrall
In the midst of large New York climate protests, Biden has decided to skip the UN summit and send John Kerry in his place.
Biden to skip U.N. climate summit
By Sara Schonhardt, Robin Bravender | 09/15/2023 04:09 PM EDT
President Joe Biden is expected to skip a U.N. summit next week where global leaders were asked to bring their ambitious plans to tackle climate change.
“Currently, the president is not scheduled to participate in the U.N. climate summit on Wednesday,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Friday.
Biden is sending climate envoy John Kerry to represent the United States, a State Department spokesperson said Friday, but Biden’s absence is noteworthy at a forum where global leaders were invited to make sweeping climate commitments and highlight action ahead of global climate talks known as COP28 that kick off in late November.
“It’s a missed opportunity,” said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at climate think tank E3G. “To not have major leaders from developed countries there [at the U.N. summit] … it’s not a good signal when you’re trying to build momentum in the run-up to COP28 in Dubai and get other countries on board.”
…
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has secured a speaking slot, the E.U. delegation in New York confirmed.
But other leaders of some of the world’s major polluters aren’t expected to be in attendance, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
…Read more: https://www.eenews.net/articles/biden-to-skip-u-n-climate-summit/
I think it hilarious that even greens describe Kerry’s attendance in place of Biden as “a missed opportunity”. No word yet if Kerry plans to shake the hand of anyone on the DEA most wanted list at this week’s climate conference.
Regarding the climate protests, the media has made a lot of noise but I’m not sure how widespread the allegedly worldwide climate protests actually are. Apparently there is quite a presence in New York, but I haven’t exactly seen anyone in my town holding any banners.
The Guardian claims “10s of thousands” attended the New York protest, to listen to speeches by AOC, though it is difficult to judge numbers from the Guardian photos. I also looked at NPR, they also have a poor quality photo which makes it difficult to judge numbers. New York Times has a short video, but the video is strangely lacking in viewpoints which would allow us to be impressed by the 10s of thousands of marchers. Judge for yourself.
The Guardian report on AOC speaking at the conference;
Tens of thousands in NYC march against fossil fuels as AOC hails powerful message
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the crowd must become ‘too big and too radical to ignore’ as Biden came under fire for oil projects
Dharna Noor and Aliya Uteuova in New YorkMon 18 Sep 2023 07.18 AEST
Tens of thousands of climate activists took to the streets of New York City on Sunday in a “march to end fossil fuels”, with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez telling the crowd that the movement must become “too big and too radical to ignore”.
To cheers from the crowd, the progressive Democrat criticized the US continuing to approve fossil fuel projects, something which the Biden administration did earlier this year with the controversial Willow project in Alaska.
“We are all here for one reason: to end fossil fuels around the planet,” Ocasio-Cortez told a rally at the finish of the march, which ended close to the UN headquarters where world leaders will gather this week. “And the way we create urgency is to have people around the world in the streets.”
…Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/17/march-to-end-fossil-fuels-new-york-city
The Guardian picture of AOC speaking at the climate protest shows AOC wearing what appears to be mostly fossil fuel based synthetic clothing. But I guess it is not easy to explain to someone who thinks all her political critics want to sleep with her, that she is acting like an ignorant green hypocrite.