Climate pact contention not reflected in agreement

“China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So we can’t build the plants, but they can, according to this (Paris) agreement.” — Donald Trump on June 1 in a speech at the White House

The agreement never uses the word coal, nor spells out how many coal-fired plants any country can build.

China’s blueprint for what it plans to do gives itself until 2030 for its greenhouse gas emissions to peak. In contrast, the U.S. blueprint says it “intends to achieve an economy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below its 2005 level in 2025.”

Critics of the arrangement point to China’s rising emissions as evidence of a fundamental unfairness. As Trump put it, the Chinese “can do whatever they want for 13 years.”

Trump’s language gives the agreement more legal weight than it actually has, and he overlooks other parts of China’s plan that aim to “control total coal consumption” and increase the use of renewable energy supplies.

China said it would reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 60 to 65 percent below 2005 levels and increase the share of non-fossil energy to around 20 percent. And to get there, it would start changing its policies today.

Our ruling

The White House offered no legal argument to back up Trump’s assertion, and the text of the agreement does not support it. The Paris agreement never mentions coal, and in Trump’s own words, it is nonbinding.

We rate this claim False.

President Donald J. Trump