Tag Archives: US

Each year, the University of Southern California brings delegations from Africa to meet with business leaders, government officials and others in the U.S. But this year, the African summit has no Africans. All were denied visas. Visa issues are not uncommon for people traveling from African nations. During her prior three summits, Mary Flowers saw a high percentage of her ...

Patricia Espinosa, who last year took the helm as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was in the United Kingdom last week to speak with businesses, NGOs and Nick Hurd, the UK climate change minister, on how to sustain and increase momentum on climate action. Previously a Mexican diplomat and minister, Espinosa is tasked with ...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday, January 1 2017 voted to confirm Rex Tillerson as the next Secretary of State. The former chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil faced a tough series of confirmation hearings and votes before being approved for the position. The 56-43 vote across party lines makes it arguably the most contentious secretary of state confirmation in recent ...

The United States will switch course on climate change and pull out of a global pact to cut emissions, said Myron Ebell, who headed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team until his inauguration. “(Trump) could do it by executive order tomorrow or he could do it as part of a larger package,” Ebell told a conference ...

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, has warned US President Donald Trump not to pull out of the Paris climate accord. “Ultimately, this is about the competitiveness of the United States,” Espinosa, a former Mexican Ambassador to Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia, said recently in an interview. During the election campaign, Trump ...

Prominent members of US national security community warn that higher temperatures and rising seas will inundate bases and fuel conflict A coalition of 25 military and national security experts, including former advisers to Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, has warned that climate change poses a “significant risk to US national security and international security” that requires more attention from ...

The US government on Friday temporarily blocked construction on part of a North Dakota oil pipeline, an unusual intervention in a prairie battle that has drawn thousands of Native Americans and activists to camp and demonstrate. In announcing the pause, the government acknowledged complaints from the Standing Rock Sioux and other tribal nations that their concerns had not been fully ...

The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a network of 77 EU and US consumer organisations, on Thursday published a new resolution on consumer concerns about new genetic engineering techniques. Consumers have right to know when new genetic engineering techniques are used, including in their food, but companies are lobbying to exempt such products from regulation. A number of new genetic engineering techniques ...

United States Special Envoy for Climate Change, Dr Jonathan Pershing, on Wednesday in Abuja met with Nigerian authorities lead by Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed, to discuss the importance of climate and clean energy cooperation in US-Nigeria relations. Dr Pershing also discussed opportunities for leadership by Nigeria in the implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The visit, it was gathered, ...

Visiting the southeastern city of Hangzhou in China on Saturday, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commended the leaders of that country and the United States for formally joining the Paris Agreement on climate change. “Now, by formally joining the Paris Agreement, you have added powerful momentum to the drive for the Agreement to enter into force this year,” the UN chief said in a ...