United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres warned reporters in Washington Tuesday that if anybody asks her about the ability of countries to meet the goals of the Paris climate talks, she will “chop off” that person’s head.
Figueres, at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, said success in Paris next month “depends on how you define successful,” adding that she will “chop the head off the person” who asks her if the talks will achieve their intended goal of ensuring the global temperature does not exceed a 2-degree rise by mid-century.
She said if the question is, will “Paris solve climate change” then the answer is “no.”
Her beheading comment was a bit tongue-and-cheek, but nevertheless showed that climate negotiators are getting a bit touchy ahead of the talks. The international negotiations are a key part of President Obama’s agenda in his last year in office, making them a key target by congressional Republicans. Her visit to Washington coincides with the House energy committee marking up a resolution to repeal a key part of Obama’s climate change agenda, the Clean Power Plan. The plan is a key part of Obama’s plan to reach a successful deal in Paris.
Figueres was just in Bonn, Germany, trying to come to an agreement on a global deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions into the middle part of the century and beyond. Last week she said the current commitments made by more than 150 nations, including the U.S., to lower their emissions was not enough to achieve the 2-degree Celsius target, but would see temperatures rise to nearly 3 degrees.
Many scientists say that allowing the Earth’s temperature to rise above 2 degrees will have catastrophic effects on global weather patterns, causing increased floods, drought and sea-level rise.
