California Governor named special climate adviser

San Francisco, June 14 (IANS) California Governor Jerry Brown has been named special adviser for states and regions at the forthcoming 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Brown was named by Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama at a ceremony in Sacramento, state capital of California, on Tuesday.

Fiji became the latest government to join the Under2 Coalition, an international pact among cities, states and countries to limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius, Xinhua news agency reported.

While Bainimarama will be incoming President of COP23, Brown announced his decision to attend the gathering in Bonn, Germany, to represent sub-national jurisdictions under the Under2 Coalition despite the US withdrawal from the climate deal.

The ceremony was attended by Governor Kate Brown of Oregon and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state, who also announced their decisions to attend the COP23 scheduled for November 6-17.

"California is proud to partner with Fiji, an island nation that is experiencing firsthand the impacts of climate change and this year is the leader of the UN Conference of Parties," Brown said in a statement.

"I look forward to taking the next step later this year with Governor Kate Brown and Governor Jay Inslee when we join Prime Minister Bainimarama in Bonn to show that states and regions will fulfill the Paris commitment."

On his part, Bainimarama said "Fiji looks forward to working with this group of states and regions in the global effort to advance climate action at every level of society."

"This is true now more than ever following the Trump administration's announcement that the US will be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement," he said.

Brown has been vocal against Trump's environmental policies and vowed on June 1, the day the administration announced the withdrawal from the Paris agreement, that California will "resist".

With the addition of Fiji, the Under2 Coalition now includes 15 nations, and its 176 members in 36 countries on six continents collectively represent over 1.2 billion people and $28.8 trillion in GDP.