TRUMP BEGINS TEARING UP OBAMA’S CLIMATE LEGACY
US PREZ TO SIGN ORDERS RESCINDING MEASURES TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING
Donald Trump will launch a major assault on Barack Obama’s climate change legacy with a series of orders that undermine America’s commitment to the Paris agreement.
Asked by the Guardian if Trump accepted the science of manmade climate change, a senior White House official replied: “Sure, yes, I guess, I think the president understands the disagreement over the policy response and you’ll see that in the order tomorrow. We’re taking a different path.”
Trump will sign executive orders and presidential memoranda on Tuesday that suspend, rescind or review several measures that were central to Obama’s effort to combat global warming . It includes a review of the clean power plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants.
Trump, who has called global warming a “hoax”, has criticised the power-plant rule and others as placing an unnecessary burden on American workers and the struggling US coal industry.
The official acknowledged the orders’ effects would not be immediate, especially in view of legal challenges. “I would bet a good deal I’m sure there’ll be litigation … Whether that’s three years, two years or one year, I don’t know. It’s going to take some time.”
The US agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 26-28% by 2025 compared to 2005 levels under the Paris agreement. Obama’s clean power plan is the chief policy designed to lower US emissions. In 2015 it was billed as the strongest action ever on climate change by a US president but criticised for targeting coalfired power plants.
Richard Lazarus, an environmental law expert at Harvard University, said: “It was launched before Paris for a reason. Everyone knew if the United States didn’t make a serious commitment, Paris wouldn’t happen. It’s now an open question how the rest of the world is going to respond if the United States eliminates a lynchpin of its commitment.”
Trump will also aim to wipe out Obama’s climate action plan, the 2013 directive outlining the government’s response to climate change.
His orders will lift a 14-monthold moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands, while a major hydraulic fracturing regulation will be reviewed.
Guidelines published by the White House Council on Environmental Quality last August will be rescinded.