Trump to ditch Paris climate agreement
Unprecedented rebuke for president after reports that he will pull US out of Paris deal to cut global warming
The EU and China will deliver an unprecedented rebuke to Donald Trump tomorrow, after reports emerged yesterday that he plans to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The UN deal, backed by 195 countries, aims to cap global warming at two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
THE European Union and China will deliver an unprecedented rebuke to Donald Trump tomorrow, after reports emerged yesterday that he planned to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The United Nations deal, backed by 195 countries, aims to cap global warming at two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels through cuts to carbon emissions. The EU and China will declare that they have “the highest political commitment” to the Paris Agreement and “call on all parties to uphold it”, in a united stance aimed at isolating the US on the world stage.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, who helped negotiate the Paris agreement while she was Climate Change Secretary, said she was “disappointed” by Mr Trump’s stance.
“It is disappointing that the Americans are pulling out but I hope that we can use our relationship with President Trump and our close relationship with the US to try and influence, to try and make sure that they nevertheless take the right steps,” she said.
In a veiled condemnation of the US president, the EU and China will demand an even lower cap than two degrees. They will also promise to work together on global strategies including cooperation on green legislation, according to documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph.
“[We] are determined to forge ahead with further policies and measures,” the statement will say.
Climate change and the shift to clean energy is “an imperative more important now than ever”, a threat to national security, and a contributing factor to instability and the displacement of people, according to the document.
The statement yokes together climate change and free trade – two of Mr Trump’s biggest bugbears – in what is, despite the diplomatic language, a clear criticism of his policies.
It calls for more free trade to allow the development of an economy low in greenhouse gas emissions. The statement is a major concession from the EU, which has trade defence measures on imports of Chinese solar panels.
“The world can count on Europe to
‘The world is in a mess. It is essential that the world implements the Paris Agreement’
keep global climate leadership,” tweeted Miguel Arias Canete, EU Climate Commissioner, who was the chief EU negotiator in talks with China. “Together, we will stand by Paris.”
Tomorrow’s statement was originally planned as a way of heaping pressure on Mr Trump to observe the legally binding deal, but it will take on added significance after reports of Mr Trump’s decision.
After the website Axios reported that he was about to pull the US out of the agreement, he said that he had not yet made up his mind, adding last night that he would announce his decision “very soon”.
He said he had been hearing from people on both sides of the issue, but did not indicate whether he had made up his mind. “I’m hearing from a lot of people, both ways. Both ways,” he said.
Mr Trump has argued the deal will cost the US economy trillions of dollars without tangible benefit. A week ago, 20 Republican senators, including Mitch Mcconnell, senator for the coal state of Kentucky, wrote to Mr Trump urging him to withdraw from the deal. But it will set him against public opinion – 61 per cent of Americans said the US should uphold the agreement, according to a Huffington Post/yougov poll on May 17.
Antonio Guterres, the UN secretarygeneral, warned in New York on Tuesday about the perils of undermining the deal. “The world is in a mess,” he said. “It is essential that the world implements the Paris Agreement.”
Mr Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was an enthusiastic cheerleaders for the Paris deal. On signing it last September, he said: “We’ve transformed the United States into a global leader in the fight against climate change.”