U.S. is back with a new approach to climate policy, says lawmaker Ocasio-Cortez

By Valerie Volcovici

GLASGOW (Reuters) -The United States has returned to global climate negotiations with a new approach rather than just picking up where it left off, U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Tuesday.

The New York congresswoman arrived at the COP26 summit in Glasgow with U.S. representatives that came to support U.S. efforts to show renewed leadership at UN climate negotiations after a four-year absence under former president Donald Trump.

“We’re just here to say that we’re not just back. We’re different and we’re more just. And we are more open minded to questioning prior assumptions of what is politically possible,” she told a side event at the climate conference.

“And I would argue that it’s a fundamentally different approach.”

Ocasio-Cortez and other Democratic lawmakers said that key to proving U.S. leadership will be the passage of a comprehensive social and climate spending bill called Build Back Better that needs to win support from moderate Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate.

“As we fly back to the United States later this week, it will be with the intent to finish the job next week. Failure really is not an option,” said Colorado Representative Joe Neguse.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, writing by William James, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Barbara Lewis)