U. S. CRASHES OPEC’S PARTY WITH RESERVE SALE PLAN
‘PRETTY CONFIDENT’ OF SUPPLY SITUATION
• Plans by the Trump administration to sell a portion of U. S. strategic oil reserves signals the country’s rising dominance in energy markets, just days before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decide whether to extend a supply agreement.
As part of broader efforts to reduce U. S. debt levels, the administration’s recent budget proposal includes a plan to sell the reserves over a 10-year period. Under the proposal, sales would peak at US$3.9 billion in 2027, and total nearly US$16.6 billion from 2018 to 2027, the administration said.
The idea is being floated just as members of the OPEC members meet in Vienna on Thursday to discuss whether they will extend a sixmonth contract to reduce oil supplies. Efforts by the group to raise prices have been hampered by nonOPEC supply growth, particularly U. S. shale producers that have outperformed market expectations by finding ways to produce oil at low costs.
Al most 200 nat i o ns pledged to fight climate change when the Paris deal was signed in 2015 and since then only the U.S. has indicated it may step off that path.
“It’s very important that we continue the shared programs on climate change,” McKenna said in an interview at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel. “There is a need to bring together key players. We think that China, Canada and the EU are in a good position to bring together other countries at the ministerial level to have high- level discussions about how we’re going to move forward on the Paris Agreement.”
Trump has given mixed signals about the fate of the Paris deal under his administration. He’s called climate change a hoax and said during his campaign last year he would scrap the deal if elected. Since then, he’s said he would keep an open mind but has prioritized stimulating fossil fuels and especially coal, which conflicts with U.S. promises under the deal. Trump’s advisers are divided on the issue.
Germany is assuming Trump will indicate the position the U. S. will take regarding the Paris accord at a Group of Seven summit in Sicily on May 26 and May 27, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said at a climate conference in Berlin on Monday. Signatory states of the Paris accord won’t let their agenda be derailed whatever the outcome of Trump’s decision and subsequent policy, Merkel indicated Tuesday.
“We are often asked about our position when looking at the U. S. uncertainty,” said Chinese envoy Xie. “The Paris Agreement is a hard- won achievement, and all signatories should stick to it instead of walking away. China will stick to its word.”
The UN climate conference, which Germany is hosting this year in Bonn, is pressing ahead with its agenda, Merkel said Tuesday. Global warming is “something that concerns us all,” she told delegates. We must “uphold the spirit of Paris.”
Concerns were also raised by a number of global corporate and political leaders, including the OECD which said that bringing growth and climate-change agendas together could lift 2050 economic output by as much as 2.8 per cent, a report released Tuesday said. Taking into account the economic benefits of avoiding climate change impacts such as flooding, that number goes up to almost.
“This trio is emblematic of the kind of distributed leadership we’re seeing, with a diversity of countries putting their shoulders to the wheel on climate,” said David Waskow, International Climate Director at the World Resources Institute. “It ranges from major emitters to many of the most vulnerable, and many in between.”
The agreement is broader than any previous climate accord. It calls for reducing pollution in hopes of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above temperatures at the outset of the industrial revolution.