United States Committed To Tackle Climate Change, Assist Other Nations - Blinken

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- The United States (US) is committed in helming the climate change agenda and to make good on its pledges at the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. He said the US also has an obligation to make sure that countries, including small island nations, have the support they needed and access to the technology, techniques and knowledge in making the transitions. “And this is something that President Joe Biden feels very strongly about when he came to office. We doubled our commitment to the different funds that provide for developing countries to have access to resources to do adaptation. And then he doubled it again. “There's an international commitment to have US$100 billion a year available for adaptation and at COP26 an agreement to even go beyond that. But we have to make good on that,” he said at the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Townhall, held in hybrid from, here, today. He was responding to a question on how the US can play a role to cap global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius as set in the Paris Agreement as well as achieving the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in an equitable manner. At the COP26 in Glasgow, the US vowed to start providing US$3 billion each year by 2024 to help developing countries adapt to climate change. Blinken said there was progress made at the COP26, with 60 countries representing 65 per cent of the world gross domestic product (GDP) pledging to limit the global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius, while more than 100 countries had committed to significantly cut emissions of methane by 30 per cent by 2030. “We have a coherent plan that if put into effect and if everyone really signs on and does it, I think it will get us to where we need to get. We're certainly not there yet and we have to speed things up because here's the final point,” he added. Talking to the 63 YSEALI alumni, Blinken also touched on the importance of youth development programmes particularly to overcome the challenges in the post-pandemic era. He expressed hope that YSEALI can help in connecting Malaysian youth to people in the US and throughout its network who have been looking at ways to deal with the obstacles. “The power of something like YSEALI and other programmes are that it’s a way of actually sharing information, sharing ideas and solutions,” he said. He also commended YSEALI Malaysia, with 10,000 members, which has organised various charity events and founded social enterprises that created job opportunities for the young people. “Some of you are supporting inclusive economic development for rural farmers, refugees, low income communities, you're improving access to education so that all young people across Malaysia can actually pursue their dreams. In short, you have dived straight into some of the most challenging issues that we all have to deal with,” he said. YSEALI is the US government’s signature programme to educate and provide skills training to young people from Southeast Asian nations – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor-Leste. To date, there are more than 5,000 alumni of YSEALI programmes and nearly 150,000 young people belonging to the YSEALI Network. Blinken arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night for a two-day working visit. He had earlier stopped in Jakarta, Indonesia and will continue with his itinerary to Bangkok, Thailand. -- BERNAMA