US pullout could add 0.3 degrees of warming: UN

GENEVA: The US withdrawal from the Paris climate pact could “in a worst case scenario” add a 0.3 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures over the 21st century, the UN said on Friday.

The head of the World Meteorological Organization’s atmospheric Research and Environment Department, Deon Terblanche, underscored however that the likely impact of US President Donald Trump’s widelycondemned decision remains far from clear.

“We haven’t run new models overnight but the indications are that it could be in the worst case scenario in the order of 0.3 degrees Celsius,” Terblanche told reporters in Geneva, referring to a possible rise over pre-industrial temperatures.

“That is the worst case scenario and this is probably not what will happen,” he added. Under the Paris deal agreed in 2015, world nations vowed steps to keep the worldwide rise in temperatures “well below” 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times.

Trump announced Thursday at the White House his administration would immediately stop implementing the “bad” 195-nation accord brokered by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 in tandem with Chinese leaders.

Terblanche also cautioned “it is still fairly early days” to assess the impact of Trump’s “complex announcement.”

UN officials also stressed that the deal was structured to require action from multiple levels of government, including municipal, regional and federal authorities.