White House regards moves to oppose the US deal and block $3bn in climate aid for developing countries as empty threats

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Republicans moved for the second time in 24 hours on Wednesday to try to weaken Barack Obama’s position at the Paris climate negotiations, opposing a deal at the summit and threatening to block $3bn in aid pledged to developing countries.



The gesture, less than two weeks before nearly 200 countries gather in Paris to try to reach a deal to stop climate change, was intended to cast doubt about Obama’s ability to deliver on his agenda.

The latest move came after the Senate voted on Tuesday to repeal the central pillar of Obama’s domestic climate plan, rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants.



The White House regards both initiatives as hollow threats. Obama has said he will veto any bill to repeal the power plant rules, and Congress does not have the votes to override that veto. Meanwhile, the White House maintains that Obama’s efforts to fight climate change fall entirely within his executive authority as president.

But with a majority of Republicans in Congress rejecting the science behind climate change and opposing action on the environment, the rearguard campaign against Obama’s efforts continued.

In the latest sign of Republican displeasure, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and John Barrasso wrote to the White House on Wednesday to oppose Obama’s support for a global climate deal for emissions cuts post-2020, and his pledge of $3bn in climate aid to developing countries.

“If the president wishes to produce something substantive from the Paris negotiations – and presumably stronger than Kyoto [the only previous international treaty on climate change] – there is no way around the Senate,” Inhofe said in a prepared statement.

UN climate fund releases $183m to tackle global warming Read more

The monies for the Green Climate Fund, designed to help poor countries get off fossil fuels and protect their people from future climate change, are seen as critical to sealing a deal at Paris.

“Without Senate approval there will be no money,” Barrasso told a sparsely attended hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. “Congress has never authorised funding the Green Climate Fund, and we cannot support providing taxpayer dollars to the fund.”



The letter to the White House asked Obama to direct Todd Stern, the state department climate envoy, to inform his counterparts that the US will not be able to come up with the cash.



“He must explain that Congress will not be forthcoming with these funds in the future without a vote in the Senate on any final agreement as required in the US constitution.”



The initiative comes a day after the Senate voted 52-46 to repeal the plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants, the largest single source of US emissions. Three Democrats broke ranks to vote with Republicans: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.

Republicans Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois opposed the measure.

Democrats in Congress dismissed the vote as pure theatrics. “It’s easy to stir up enough confusion and cause people to think that we are not going to follow through,” Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii told the Guardian. “The Republicans are in no position to reverse the president’s clean power plan.”

He argued Republican efforts could backfire. “I don’t think anyone is going to buy it,” he said. “However confusing our legislative process is to the international community they will be able to see in living colour that no matter what Jim Inhofe will say he is apparently not getting his way.”

Senate Republicans were weighing up one more theatrical display, timed for the arrival in Paris of 80 world leaders at the start of two-week negotiations.

The symbolic vote would express opposition to US involvement in a global climate agreement.



The White House insists there is very little Republicans can do to stop Obama from signing on to a deal at Paris, so long as it remains a voluntary, non-binding agreement.



John Kerry, the secretary of state, reaffirmed this week that the US was seeking to avoid a legal treaty which would require approval from the Republican-dominated Senate. It is “definitively not going to be a treaty”, he told the Senate.



As for the climate aid, Democrats in Congress said that Republicans had already waived their ability to hold up the first $500m instalment.

Under a deal brokered last July by Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator from Oregon, the Senate appropriations committee specifically struck down a provision that would have blocked the US from contributing to the Green Climate Fund. The language was approved by 16 Republican members of the committee, Merkley’s office said at the time.

The Green Climate Fund released eight grants totalling $183m last week to demonstrate it was up and running in time for the Paris talks.

However, Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican senator from West Virginia, suggested on Wednesday the Senate could still be willing to hold up the budget over climate aid.

“I don’t think this Senate is going to approve in the omnibus bill any language that could open any door to the Green Climate Fund,” she said.

