US won’t give up on battling climate change, Obama says
MILAN — Former U.S. President Barack Obama says he’s “confident that the United States will continue to move in the right direction” on climate change despite his successor’s pledges to undo many of his policies.
On his first foreign foray since leaving office, Obama told an audience Tuesday at a Milan conference on food innovation that businesses in the United States are already committed to clean energy, in part due to cost savings.
While campaigning for president, Trump pledged to “cancel” the Paris Agreement, the first international deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions from both rich and poor countries. But Tuesday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump is delaying a decision on whether to withdraw from the landmark climate deal until after an international summit this month in Italy.
A meeting for top Trump advisers to discuss the deal was set for Tuesday afternoon but was postponed.
“The good news is, in part because of what we did over the last eight years, the private sector has already made a determination that the future is in clean energy. Investments are moving into clean energy,” Obama said.
“It may be that some of the steps we put in place may move more slowly than they otherwise would have. But I’m confident that the United States will continue to move in the right direction,” he said.
Obama referred to Trump by name only once, discussing efforts to roll back on Obama’s own “aggressive standards” on fuel efficiency for passenger cars.
“The Trump administration made a change,” Obama said, but he added that those moves would be up against even-stricter standards in California, the country’s largest car market.
“So even if the rules change in Washington, there is not a U.S. automaker that can afford to produce a car that is not fuel-efficient enough to be sold in California,” Obama said.
More than 3,000 people, including government and business leaders, attended Obama’s keynote address focusing on the intersection between climate change and food security.
Obama noted climate change is creating shrinking agricultural yields and spiking food prices, “in some places … leading to political instability.”
“In fact, some of the refugee flows into Europe originate not only from conflict, but also places where there are food shortages. That will get far worse as climate change continues,” Obama told the conference.
Obama made a few tourist stops in Milan, including to see Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” accompanied by Italy’s culture minister.