Climate nations not missing U.S.

BONN, Germany — If world leaders are angry at the United States for rejecting the Paris climate change agreement, few at United Nations climate talks here are openly showing it.

Delegates from the largest industrial countries to the smallest island states are tiptoeing around the single largest topic of discussion here — the American retreat from leadership on climate change and the Trump administration’s moves to undermine domestic global warming policy and international climate diplomacy.

President Emmanuel Macron of France on Wednesday challenged Europe to “replace America” in financing the U.N. climate change science body, though he did not directly criticize President Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate U.S. contributions to it. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, praised a coalition of American governors and mayors who, in contrast to the White House stance, are still working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Leaders of other nations, from the island of Nauru to landlocked Niger, barely alluded in public remarks to the new posture of the United States, historically the world’s largest emitter of planet-warming gases and now the only country to reject a global solution to climate change.

Achim Steiner, the administrator of the U.N. Development Program, said openly criticizing the Trump administration on climate change would be pointless.

“What is to be gained?” he asked. “The reaction to the U.S. decision was loud and clear from every world leader, so to then go on and on is very unproductive.”