Paris Delegation News

Democracy Now : As U.S. Congress Lags, California Leads Push to Divest From Fossil Fuels Linked to Climate Change

December 2, 2015

The seventh largest economy in the world has “de-linked carbon from GDP,” says Kevin de León, president pro tem of the California Senate. De León led the effort in the California Senate to pass a resolution to divest two of the world’s largest pension funds from fossil fuels: CalPERS and CalSTRS, the California Public Employees Retirement System and California State Teachers’ Retirement System. Together the two funds represent nearly $500 billion in assets. California is in its fifth year of a massive drought, de León notes, and has faced devastating forest fires linked to climate change.

L.A. Times: California isn't a country, so why are so many in the state headed to climate talks in Paris?

December 2, 2015

California will have a massive footprint at the United Nations summit on climate change in Paris, a symbol of the state’s political commitment to fighting global warming and the business interest of companies that can benefit from clean-energy policies.

The decision by many of California’s most powerful leaders to decamp across the Atlantic Ocean shows how stemming greenhouse gas emissions is viewed as both an environmental imperative and a potential economic boost for the state.

SCPR: What can UN climate reps learn from California's climate plan?

November 30, 2015

When it comes to climate change, California has set out some of the most ambitious targets in the country for boosting renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions.

To compare the state's record on climate to some of the big issues at the UN climate conference currently taking place in Paris, we're joined by Sean Hecht, co-executive director at UCLA's Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

Senator Wieckowski discusses Paris on radio station KLIV

November 25, 2015

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CNN: After terror, should Paris climate talks go on?

November 17, 2015

"You will not have my hatred." That's the message a Parisian man, Antoine Leiris, whose wife was killed in Friday's terror attacks, sent to ISIS, and the world, via Facebook this week.

It's in that spirit of resilience and defiance that world leaders and diplomats still are planning to meet in Paris on November 30 for the most important climate change summit the world has seen. "You want me to be frightened, that I should look into the eyes of my fellow citizens with distrust, that I sacrifice my freedom for security," Leiris wrote. "You lost. I will carry on as before."