Trump rethinking green deal
International backlash expected if new US administration tries to pull out of climate-change pact
PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump is seeking quick ways to withdraw the US from a global accord to combat climate change, a source on his transition team said, defying broad global backing for the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Since Trump’s election victory last Tuesday, governments ranging from China to small island states have reaffirmed support for the 2015 Paris Agreement during climate talks involving 200 nations set to run until Friday in Marrakesh, Morocco. Trump has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the agreement, which was strongly supported by outgoing US President Barack Obama.
Trump’s advisers are considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the accord, according to the source, who works on Trump’s transition team for international energy and climate policy.
“It was reckless for the Paris Agreement to enter into force before the election on Tuesday,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Paris accord won enough backing for entry into force on November 4, four days before the election.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday the Obama administration would do everything it could to implement the Paris accord before Trump took office.
The accord says in its Article 28 that any country wanting to pull out after signing has to wait four years.
In theory, the earliest date for withdrawal would be November 4 2020, about the time of the next US presidential election.
The source said the future Trump administration was weighing alternatives to accelerate the pullout.
The action also could antagonise many other countries.
An earlier UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sets a goal of avoiding dangerous manmade damage to the climate to avert more heatwaves, downpours, floods, the extinction of animals and plants, and rising sea levels.
The 2015 Paris Agreement is much more explicit, seeking to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of the century and limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial times.
Many nations have expressed hope that the US will stay. But the host of the current round of climate negotiations, Morocco, said the pact seeking to phase out greenhouse gases in the second half of the century was strong enough to survive a pullout.
One party deciding to withdraw would not call the agreement into question, Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said.
In Beijing yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China would like to continue working with all countries, including the US, in the global fight against climate change. The agreement was reached by almost 200 nations in December and, as of Saturday, has been formally ratified by 109, representing 76% of greenhouse gas emissions, including the US with 18%.
The Trump source said the president-elect’s transition team was aware of the likely international backlash but said Republicans in Congress had given ample warning that a Republican administration would take action to reverse course.
The source blamed Obama for joining up by an executive order without getting approval from the US Senate.