Trump snub sparks pledge to save ‘our Mother Earth’
China and Europe have pledged to unite to save what German Chancellor Angela Merkel called ‘‘our Mother Earth’’, standing firmly against United States President Donald Trump’s decision to take the US out of the Paris climate change pact.
Trump’s move was ‘‘a big mistake‘‘, said Donald Tusk, one of the European Union’s top officials.
Other countries, including India, have signalled their commitment to the accord.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that while the US should have remained in the 2015 deal, he would not judge Trump.
Members of Trump’s administration, including Vice President Mike Pence and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, said yesterday that the Paris deal put an extraordinary burden on the US. ‘‘It was a transfer of wealth from the most powerful economy in the world to other countries around the planet‘‘, Pence said.
Trump’s decision has been greeted with a mix of dismay and anger across the world.
The World Meteorological Organisation estimated that US withdrawal from the emissionscutting accord could add 0.3 degrees C to global temperatures by the end of the century in a worst-case scenario.
Merkel, a pastor’s daughter who is usually intensely private about her faith, said the accord was needed ‘‘to preserve our Creation’’.
‘‘To everyone for whom the future of our planet is important, I say let’s continue going down this path so we’re successful for our Mother Earth,’’ she said to applause from lawmakers.
In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron turned Trump’s ‘‘Make America Great Again’’ campaign slogan on its head, saying in a rare Englishlanguage statement that it was time to ‘‘make the planet great again’’.
At a meeting yesterday between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and EU officials in Brussels, the leaders pledged full implementation of the Paris deal. They committed to cutting fossil fuel use, developing more green technology, and raising funds to help poorer countries reduce emissions. China, the world’s largest polluter, has emerged as Europe’s unlikely partner.
Earlier, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: ‘‘There is no reverse gear to energy transition. There is no backsliding on the Paris Agreement.’’
Pruitt at the Trump change US.
He said his own view was that human activity contributed to climate change, but measuring how much was ‘‘very challenging’’.
Pruitt said America had nothing to apologise for on climate change and retained a seat at the negotiating table.
He claimed Trump wanted better terms within the Paris framework or an entirely new deal, and dismissed warnings from world leaders that the pact was not negotiable.
‘‘Well, that’s up to them, right? The United States has a seat at the table. After all, we’re the United declined to tell reporters White House whether now believes climate is real and threatens the Americans don’t need Washington to meet our Paris commitments, and Americans are not going to let Washington stand in the way of fulfilling it. States and we are leading with respect to CO2 reduction. We have made tremendous progress.
‘‘If nations around the globe want to seek to learn from us on what we’re doing to reduce our CO2 footprint, we’re going to share that with them, and that’s something that should occur and will occur in the future. We will reach out and reciprocate with nations that seek to achieve that.’’
Pruitt denied that America had abandoned the victims of climate change around the world, arguing that it had done ‘‘a tremendous amount’’ to reduce carbon output to 1990s levels, and would stay engaged and continue to export relevant technology.
‘‘This is not a message to anyone in the world that America should be apologetic of its CO2 position. We’re actually making tremendous advances. We’re just not going to agree to frameworks and agreements that put us at an economic disadvantage and hurt citizens across this country.’’
US billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday offered US$15 million (NZ$21m) to the United Nations to tackle climate change. He has also urged US cities, states and businesses to follow suit so that the country fulfils its commitments under the accord.
‘‘Americans don’t need Washington to meet our Paris commitments, and Americans are not going to let Washington stand in the way of fulfilling it,’’ Bloomberg said following a meeting with Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo yesterday.
The money, offered by Bloomberg’s philanthropic foundation, would ensure there was no disruption to the UN’s work on climate change in the wake of Trump’s decision, he said. It would also help to fulfil the Paris agreement reporting requirements so the world could track the US’s progress.
Bloomberg, the UN secretarygeneral’s special envoy for cities and climate change, said the US had led the world on emission reductions over the past decade. Those efforts had been spearheaded by citizens and cities, he added, not the federal government, aided by market forces that had made solar and wind energy cheaper than coal.