Trump bashes India on climate pact
NO FREELOADING ‘Paris Accord onesided; China, Russia not paying enough’
President Donald Trump celebrated 100 days in office with a campaign-type speech that will be parsed for the attack on the Paris Climate Accord, which he said was onesided and that he was to announce a “big decision” soon, and for accusing India, Russia and China of not paying enough towards mitigation of greenhouses gases.
Also of interest specially to the government, businesses and people in India, was his reaffirmation of protectionism, listing for his supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday his “Buy American, Hire American” executive order among the achievements , saying “we are ending offshoring”.
“Our government rushed to join international agreement where the United States bears the costs and bears the burden while other countries get the benefit and pay nothing and this includes deals like the one-sided Paris Climate Accord. where the United States pays billions while China, Russia and India have contributed, and will contribute, nothing,” he told the rally.
As the crowd booed, he asked them if the accord reminded them of the Iran deal — “that beauty” — which was widely greeted with much suspicion and derision among conservatives.
He said he would be making a “big decision on the Paris Accord over the next two weeks and … we will see what happens.” The climate accord, he said, fit a pattern of “global theft and plunder of American wealth at the expense of the American worker”.
Trump argued, citing an estimate, that full compliance with the accord will shrink American Gross Domestic Product by $2.5 trillion over 10 years “that means factories and plants closing all over our country … (but) not with me, folks”.
The US and other rich nations have pledged under the Paris Accord to rise $100 billion in funding for the Green Climate Fund (CCF) to help developing nations switch to greener fuels and technologies. America was expected to contribute $3 billion in the 2014 round, but under President Barack Obama committed only $500 million. Signed by 192 parties in December 2015, the Paris agreement went into effect in November 2016 — ratified by India, China the US — with the goal of limiting global warming this century to 2 degree Celsius.
As candidate, Trump had said he would withdraw the US from the agreement, but after election he said he had an “open mind” on the issue.
On jobs, Trump said, “We are ending the offshoring and bringing back our beautiful, wonderful and great American jobs.” His administration has launched a series of steps recently aimed at preventing loss of American jobs in the IT sector. He had signed last week an executive order that seeks a review of the H-1B temporary visa programme for highskilled foreign workers that are used heavily by Indian IT firms, which were accused of gaming the system.