House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy PelosiLawmakers bypass embattled Mulvaney in spending talks Ex-GOP lawmaker: Former colleagues privately say they’re ‘disgusted and exhausted’ by Trump Five questions looming over impeachment MORE (D-Calif.) will lead a delegation of congressional Democrats to the United Nations climate change conference in Madrid next week, her office announced Saturday.
Pelosi and 14 other Democrats from both chambers of Congress will attend the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also called COP25, her office said.
“It is a privilege to accompany a high-level Congressional delegation to Spain to combat the existential threat of our time: the climate crisis,” Pelosi said in the statement.
“Taking action to protect our planet is a public health decision for clean air and clean water for our children, an economic decision for creating the green, good-paying jobs of the future, a national security decision to address resource competition and climate migration and also a moral decision to be good stewards of God’s creation and pass a sustainable, healthy planet to the next generation,” she added.
Pelosi will be joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
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Sean CastenDemocrat unveils bill requiring banks to identify suspicious activity related to guns Club for Growth extends advertising against House Dems over impeachment Swing-seat Democrats oppose impeachment, handing Pelosi leverage MORE (Ill.) and Joe Neguse
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According to a U.N. press release, a key COP25 objective is to “raise overall ambition” for combatting climate change “by completing several key aspects with respect to the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.”
The Trump administration this month began the process of formally withdrawing from the Obama-era climate pact. The move from President Trump
Donald John TrumpKamala Harris aide says in resignation letter: ‘I’ve never seen staff treated so poorly’ New Iowa ad compares Booker to the ‘other Rhodes Scholar mayor’ Lawmakers bypass embattled Mulvaney in spending talks MORE, who has long criticized the agreement and vowed to exit it during a Rose Garden speech in 2017, begins a yearlong process to formally withdraw the U.S. from the accord.
The State Department said Saturday that despite plans to withdraw from the pact, the Trump administration “will continue to participate in ongoing climate change negotiations and meetings—such as COP25—to ensure a level playing field that protects U.S. interests.”
The department announced that Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, principal deputy assistant secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, would lead the U.S. delegation to the summit with other officials from multiple federal agencies and departments.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Michael (Mike) Richard PompeoEx-GOP lawmaker: Former colleagues privately say they’re ‘disgusted and exhausted’ by Trump 40 protesters killed in Iraq in 24 hours Memo to Democrats: What’s the rush? MORE justified Trump’s move to formally withdraw from the Paris climate accord earlier this month, arguing that the agreement imposed an “unfair economic burden” on “American workers, businesses, and taxpayers.”
Other focus areas for the conference, which takes place Dec. 2-13, include “adaptation, loss and damage, transparency, finance, capacity-building, Indigenous issues, oceans, forestry, and gender.”
