For immediate release: April 22, 2016

Contact: Elaine de Leon Ahn, Communications Director IPS, elaine@ips-dc.org, 202-787-5271

NEW YORK –Today, Secretary of State John Kerry and other world leaders are expected to sign the Paris climate agreement in New York, but the Institute for Policy Studies and other climate justice advocates are not celebrating yet.

While the Paris agreement acknowledges the urgent need to curb global warming, it does not offer a credible strategy to get us there. The rhetoric employed by the most polluting countries is not reflected in their national climate plans. For all its talk of climate as a legacy issue, the Obama Administration cannot sign on to so little toward cutting carbon pollution and delivering climate aid and call itself a global leader.

Statement from Janet Redman, Institute for Policy Studies Climate Program Director:

“The diplomatic success of near-universal adoption of a treaty to limit global warming is marred by the fact that the inadequate actions promised would still lead to climate catastrophe, the finance committed falls far short of what’s needed, and the agreement itself is largely toothless.”

“The era of the dig, burn, dump economy is over. As the world’s wealthiest nation and biggest historic climate polluter, the U.S. has to move boldly toward a clean energy economy that leaves fossil fuels in the ground and creates millions of long-term, family-supporting jobs here at home. But to avoid a planetary disaster, the U.S. also has to massively ramp up support for communities in the Global South for renewable power, food and water security, and sustainable economies.”