By DPA,
Washington : US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a new climate change envoy Monday as part of a bolstered US presence on the international stage to address global warming.
Todd Stern will become the country’s chief climate negotiator with the international community, which is hoping to agree to a new climate treaty by the end of this year. Stern will also be involved in domestic US efforts to reduce pollution.
Clinton said Stern would “vigorously pursue negotiations” with the world’s other major polluters to reach a deal that will cut emissions of greenhouse gases considered the chief cause of global warming.
“We have no shortage of evidence that our world is facing a climate crisis,” Clinton said. “No solution is possible without all major emitting nations joining together and playing an important part.”
Stern served as a senior advisor to former president Bill Clinton and led the US delegation to the Kyoto talks in 1997, which established the first ever global climate treaty. World leaders have set a deadline of December to work out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which the US never joined.
Obama earlier said the US was prepared to take a new leading role in confronting the threat of climate change and using renewable energy to help wean the country off its dependence on foreign oil.
“We will make it clear to the world that America is ready to lead,” Obama said at the White House.