{"id":155759,"date":"2026-02-14T19:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T19:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155759\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T19:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T19:30:18","slug":"us-takes-aim-at-un-climate-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155759\/","title":{"rendered":"US takes aim at UN climate proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS \u2014 The Trump administration is urging other nations to press a tiny Pacific island country to withdraw a United Nations draft resolution supporting strong action to prevent climate change<\/a>, including reparations for damage caused by any nation that fails to take action.<\/p>\n

In guidance issued this week to all U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, the State Department said it \u201cstrongly objects\u201d to the proposal being discussed by the U.N. General Assembly and that its adoption \u201ccould pose a major threat to U.S. industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has delivered a very clear message: that the U.N. and many nations of the world have gone wildly off track, exaggerating climate change into the world\u2019s greatest threat,\u201d according to the cable sent Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

It is the latest move by the Trump administration to distance the U.S. from climate change efforts at home and around the world. A day ago, the government revoked a scientific finding<\/a> that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. last month also announced plans to withdraw<\/a> from the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The draft resolution sponsored by Vanuatu, which like many island nations fears for its survival because of climate change, is being circulated among the 193-member General Assembly and stems from a landmark advisory opinion<\/a> by the U.N.’s top court last July.<\/p>\n

The International Court of Justice<\/a> said countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change<\/a>, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations.<\/p>\n

All U.N. member states, including major greenhouse gas emitters like the U.S. and China, are parties to the court. The opinion is not legally binding but was hailed as a turning point in international climate law.<\/p>\n

The draft resolution expresses determination to translate the ICJ\u2019s findings in to \u201cconcrete multinational action\u201d and calls on all nations and regional organizations to comply with their obligations under international law related to climate change.<\/p>\n

The proposal says that includes adopting a national climate action plan to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius; phasing out subsidies for fossil fuel exploration, production and exploitation; and urging those in violation to \u201cprovide full and prompt reparation for damage.\u201d It would establish an International Register of Damage to record evidence and claims.<\/p>\n

Vanuatu’s U.N. Ambassador Odo Tevi, who said his island country wants a vote on the resolution by the end of March, has stressed that it would ensure that the clarity in the ICJ ruling \u201cstrengthens global climate action and multilateral cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director of Human Rights Watch, urged support for the draft resolution Friday and said \u201cgovernments should live up to their obligation\u201d to protect human rights around the world by protecting the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cResponsible governments shouldn\u2019t allow themselves to be bullied by those that reject the global scientific consensus and continue to support reliance on harmful fossil fuels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While General Assembly resolutions also are not legally binding, the ICJ said taking action to deal with the climate crisis is an international obligation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resolution attempts to turn the ICJ\u2019s interpretation of key legal standards into a practical roadmap for state accountability, which is likely to trigger political pushback from higher income high emitting countries wary of their historical responsibility and financial liability,\u201d Candy Ofime, climate justice researcher and legal adviser at Amnesty International, said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n

The State Department cable outlined plans to tell other countries to urge Vanuatu to withdraw its draft \u2014 which the U.S. says is \u201ceven more problematic\u201d than the court opinion \u2014 from consideration by Friday, when informal consultations began.<\/p>\n

It asserted that other Group of 7 economic powers as well as China, Saudi Arabia and Russia have all indicated to the U.S. Mission to the U.N. that they share Americans\u2019 concerns with \u201caspects\u201d of the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis UNGA resolution is another example of U.N. overreach, part of a broader pattern of trying to use speculative climate models to fabricate purported legal obligations that seek to assign blame and encourage baseless claims, and to infer human rights obligations to which states have not agreed,” according to the cable, which tells U.S. diplomats to use it as a talking point with representatives of other countries.<\/p>\n

Many mainstream scientists have continuously warned that climate change is behind increasing instances<\/a> of deadly and costly<\/a> extreme weather, including flooding, droughts, wildfires<\/a>, intense rainfall events<\/a> and dangerous heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

__ Amiri reported from New York, and Lee from Munich, Germany.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNITED NATIONS \u2014 The Trump administration is urging other nations to press a tiny Pacific island country to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3753,5885,6163,37566,116,118,117,74880],"class_list":{"0":"post-155759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-climate","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-flood","11":"tag-floods","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","14":"tag-jacksonville-news","15":"tag-monsoon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}