Rousseff to attend UN ceremony in New York

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is set arrive in New York on Friday for the signing ceremony of the UN Paris Agreement on climate change.

During Rousseff's trip, Vice President Michel Temer, who has been pushing for Rousseff's impeachment, will temporarily assume presidency, her office announced on Wednesday.

On Sunday night, the Chamber of Deputies voted 367-146 to endorse impeachment against Rousseff, passing the matter to the Senate. Should the Senate decide within 24 days to begin an impeachment trial, Rousseff will have to step aside for 180 days for the trial to proceed.

Vice President Temer will then take over as interim president.

Rousseff will use her platform at the UN to address the impeachment process against her, which she describes as a coup attempt, Xinhua news agency reported.

She will have five minutes to speak at the ceremony, during which she is expected to slam the "coup" and remind the world of Brazil's contributions to the climate change agreement, the office said.

Rousseff has expressed reservations about leaving Brazil and allowing Temer to take over, but local media reports said her supporters shave advised her to inform attendees at the UN about the truth of the political crisis in the country.

A day before the announcement of Rousseff's trip to New York, Temer sent Senator Aloysio Nunes, one of his loyalists, to meet in Washington with Thomas Shannon, the US under secretary of state for political affairs and a former American ambassador to Brazil, in order to present their side of the impeachment debate.

Adopted by the 196 Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement sets a target of curbing the global average rise in temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5 degrees.

The agreement will be officially signed at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday.

--IANS

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