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Morton made the announcement to journalists in a tele-conference to preview the 22nd Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22).
“We know that by 2050 or certainly by the end of the century we’ve got to have deep de-carbonization.
“Twenty per cent is not enough; thirty per cent is not enough. We need to think about an 80 per cent reduction or perhaps more.
“The President himself has talked about an 80 per cent reduction as a place that we should be by 2050 and we have to think about how we do that.
“We are doing modelling with our Department of Energy and the Energy national laboratories, drawing on an academic community and wide literature around the world.
“And we look forward to continuing this discussion, not just for now, but beyond that as we look for much larger, deeper reductions in the longer term,’’ he said.
The U.S. official said that as the COP22 was approaching, his government would intensify its work in turning implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Morton described the Paris Agreement as a turning point for setting in place an international framework for the needed actions.
The director added that the Paris Agreement in December last year was a watershed moment for the international community.
“We have seen in the last two months alone, the rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement, much, much faster, years faster than most people expected.
“And with that entry into force, that puts us on a much accelerated path toward implementation of the goals that we laid out in Paris a year ago.
“So, as we look forward to the two weeks ahead, we see COP22 is really a COP of implementation and action,’’ he said.