Tillerson faces task of defending Trump’s decision to allies
US proud of its ‘terrific record’ on climate role
appear to overrule Tillerson’s advice concerning the Paris agreement, but the decision fanned fears of the US abdicating its global leadership role and shunning international consensus on the world’s most pressing issues.
Tillerson was not the only Cabinet member to skip the Rose Garden ceremony where Trump announced his decision, but his absence was perhaps the most glaring. He met Trump only hours earlier in the White House. Tillerson’s aides maintained that he decided to follow his own schedule, which had him in his seventhfloor office on Thursday afternoon as Trump was speaking.
Aides could not say if Tillerson watched the president on television. But he will be almost surely be required to recite the rationale for Trump’s pullout from the agreement cutting carbon emissions, given that his agency led the Paris deal negotiations and will now have to manage the international fallout.
“I don’t think we’re going to change our ongoing efforts to reduce those emissions in the future,” Tillerson said Friday, playing down the president’s decision. “So hopefully people can keep it in perspective.”
Tillerson called Trump’s action a “policy decision.” He insisted the US should be proud of its “terrific record” in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, even before the Paris pact took effect late last year.
Trump’s announcement is renewing questions about the level of Tillerson’s influence on his boss’ mercurial foreign policy decisionmaking. Tillerson is the former CEO of Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company and one that spent years examining climate science until grudgingly accepting the dan- gers of global warming. Still, his support for the Paris deal was insufficient to persuade Trump to stay in.
This weekend, Tillerson visits Australia and New Zealand. Both countries have been outspoken in their climate change concerns and support for the Paris agreement. Tillerson is sure to hear an earful about the issue in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
“Tillerson’s credibility issues right now are far broader than just the Paris accord,” said Cecile Shea, a retired US diplomat, now of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She said the withdrawal compounded suspicions about US leadership since Trump left the TransPacific Partnership trade deal and questioned the NATO alliance.
Tillerson’s argument to Trump was that leaving the agreement would diminish US influence in encouraging other countries to reduce their emissions, aides said. He did not argue that it would affect US efforts to reduce American emissions.
“This was not a litmus test on the reality of climate change for him,” said R.C. Hammond, a senior Tillerson adviser. “He still sees a path forward on that and we’re also going to continue to work with our friends and allies on our priorities: National security and the economy.”