Trump feels the heat on climate

22 GOP senators want US to pull out of Paris accord

PARIS, May 25, (Agencies): At every stop in Donald Trump’s whirlwind of summit meetings in Europe, the issue of climate change -- and the US president’s threat to ditch the 196-nation Paris Agreement -- is never far from the surface.

Terrorism and trade may top the agendas, especially in the wake of Monday’s Manchester massacre that left at least 22 dead. But European leaders have promised to pressure Trump, an avowed sceptic, on the need to maintain a united front in the fight against global warming.

“I am still trying to convince the doubters,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday at informal 30-nation climate talks in Berlin, where China’s climate tzar, Xie Zhenhua, also urged the United States to stay the course.

Newly minted French President Emmanuel Macron, on the eve of his May 7 victory, likewise vowed to “do everything possible” to keep the former reality TV star on board. Macron intended to press the climate case at a one-onone “working luncheon” in Brussels on Thursday, an Elysee advisor told AFP.

Plea

Even Pope Francis made a point on Wednesday of giving Trump a copy of Laudato Si, the Pontiff’s impassioned plea for preventing the planet from overheating.

Trump has said he will pass judgement on the landmark 2015 climate treaty -- which he trashed as a candidate -- upon returning to Washington. There are hints he may show his hand during Friday’s G7 summit in Sicily, the last stop on his 10-day foreign foray.

Simply ignoring the topic at the richnation summit is not really an option, said David Waskow, a veteran climate analyst at the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.

“Climate change has been mentioned in every G7 and G8 outcome over the

Nino conditions.

Chris Brenchley, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center, said at a news conference Wednesday that the region can expect anywhere from five to CANCUN, Mexico, May 25, (RTRS): Cutting human, economic and infrastructure losses caused by disasters is imperative, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told the start of a UN conference, urging wealthy countries to help vulnerable nations limit their exposure to natural hazards.

Pena Nieto said on Wednesday that threats such as earthquakes and storms “recognise no national boundaries or frontiers or orders of government”.

Ninety percent of deaths from disasters happen in low- and middleincome countries, he noted at the opening of the three-day conference on disasters in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

“In the Caribbean, there are some economies and societies that are especially vulnerable in light of disaster situations that have been aggravated as a result of climate change,” he said, expressing a commitment to

past 30 years, and over the past decade it has been a central part of every communique,” Waskow told journalists in a briefing. If climate change goes unmentioned, in other words, it would be an unmistakable sign of disaccord.

Any end-of-summit joint statement will probably seek to remain strategically vague, analysts said.

In their role as hosts, “the challenge for the Italians is to let the American president go away saying ‘we didn’t go any further,’ and for the rest of the countries to be able to say ‘we didn’t go backwards’,” said Tom Burke, Chairman of E3G, a London-based climate policy think-tank.

If the US president is to be swayed, it may be pressure from business interests that makes the difference.

A host of metrics -- the stabilisation of

eight tropical cyclones from June through November. Brenchley said there is an equal chance of El Nino and neutral conditions in the Pacific this season. El Nino is a natural warming of the Pacific that alters weather worldwide. The average number of storms support neighbouring Caribbean nations.

Pena Nieto said Mexico was exposed to meteorological, geographical and volcanic risks, with a quarter of the population living under the threat of cyclones, while a third was vulnerable to earthquakes. At least 166 disasters had affected the country since 2012, he noted.

“In Mexico, we are well aware that we are fortunate, that we have the institutions available to us - notably our armed forces, our civil institutions, as well as the human and material resources necessary to have a national civil protection system,” he said.

Running until Friday, the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is the first major meeting since the 15-year Sendai Framework was hammered out in Japan in 2015, setting targets for governments to cut deaths, economic losses and infrastructure damage from disasters by 2030.

CO2 emissions from energy production, investment in renewables outstripping fossil fuels -- point to a decisive shift in the global economy towards clean energy, and for many businesses the risk of getting left behind now outweighs the cost of joining in that transition.

WASHINGTON:

Also:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and 21 other Republicans are urging the president to follow through on his campaign pledge to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

The GOP senators sent a two-page letter Thursday to President Donald Trump. The letter says remaining in the international agreement to reduce carbon emissions could fuel legal challenges to the administration’s plans to roll back environmental regulations.

per year since 1970 is 4.6, but the past four seasons have had above-average activity. The 2015 season set a record with 15 total named storms that came amid a strong El Nino. (AP)

Bid to upend EPA pesticide rule:

The House on Wednesday passed a Republicanbacked measure reversing an Environmental Protection Agency requirement that those spraying pesticides on or near rivers and lakes file for a permit.

The chamber voted largely along party lines to approve the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2017. In the preceding floor debate, the bill’s supporters said the rule requiring a permit under the Clean Water Act before spraying pesticides is burdensome and duplicative. EPA already regulates pesticide safety under a different law that gives the agency authority to place restrictions on when and where spraying can occur.

The current EPA rule was put in place after a lawsuit was filed by environmentalists and commercial fishermen. They claimed the agency was failing to adequately prevent pesticide contamination in protected waters. A federal appeals court agreed in 2009, forcing EPA to start requiring the permits.

Bill sponsor Rep Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, said the permit requirement places an unnecessary burden on farmers and local health officials fighting mosquito-borne diseases. (AP)