US Mission Geneva

A/HRC/35/L.32 Explanation of Position by the United States of America Human Rights Council, 35th Session We thank the members of the core group for their continued dedication to an issue of importance to many countries.  Climate change is a complex global challenge.  As we said with respect to a prior Human Rights Council resolution on […]

In re-engaging the United Nations, we have not compromised our national interests, but advanced them; we have not overlooked the dysfunctions of the UN system, but sought to tackle them; and we have not muted our values, but defended them vigorously and credibly.

At the 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in Kigali, Rwanda, countries adopted an amendment to phase down HFCs, committing to cut the production and consumption of HFCs by more than 80 percent over the next 30 years.

Secretary Kerry: “In Kigali, Rwanda, I was proud to help represent the United States as the nearly 200 Parties to the Montreal Protocol agreed to an amendment to phase down the use and production of potent greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The Kigali Amendment we adopted could avoid up to half a degree Celsius of warming by the end of the century.”

I also want to thank the people of every nation that has moved quickly to bring the Paris Agreement into force. I encourage folks who have not yet submitted their documentation to enter into this agreement to do so as soon as possible. And in the coming days, let’s help finish additional agreements to limit aviation emissions, to phase down dangerous use of hydrofluorocarbons — all of which will help build a world that is safer, and more prosperous, and more secure, and more free than the one that was left for us.

President Obama: “We must reject any forms of fundamentalism, or racism, or a belief in ethnic superiority that makes our traditional identities irreconcilable with modernity.”

You are cordially invited to attend a U.S. Mission sponsored seminar at the WTO headquarters in Geneva.

“Geneva – the operational hub of multilateral diplomacy – provides the foundation for our work, which is built on the need to bridge cultures, to develop a network of both traditional and non-traditional partners, as we address the world’s most significant social, economic, and environmental challenges. And that’s what I want to talk about today – how the United States is working in concert with the international community in Geneva – through multi-stakeholder partnerships – to enhance resiliency and foster sustainable development around the world.”

From September 1-10, the State of Hawaii will host the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) under the theme “Planet at the Crossroads.” At the Congress, the State Department will help showcase the Administration’s accomplishments on a range of international environmental issues, including climate, oceans and wildlife trafficking.