White House Officials Split On Whether Trump Should Pull Out Of Paris Climate Deal
Senior administration officials are split down the middle over whether the president should keep or break his campaign promise to pull the United States out of the Paris climate deal.
Though Donald Trump’s top policy advisers were scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon to determine a path forward, the meeting was canceled because of “scheduling conflicts,” a White House official has confirmed. A new date for the meeting — which included figures like Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon and Rex Tillerson — has not been set yet.
(Photo: Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
Though it’s been reported that staffers who are in favor of keeping Trump’s promise — and therefore pulling out of the climate accord reached last year in Paris — are out numbered, a source told the Daily Caller that it is evenly split.
The source added that Energy Secretary Rick Perry, considered by some to be a climate skeptic, has softened his stance.
(Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
As a candidate, Trump promised to cancel the agreement within his first 100 days in office.
“We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs,” a statement that is still published on his website reads.…
WORLD LEADERS MUST BRING TRUMP ‘BACK TO THE TABLE’ ON CLIMATE CHANGE, SAYS U.N. DEPUTY CHIEF
The deputy secretary-general of the United Nations says the Trump administration must be “brought back to the table” on climate change, despite repeatedly pledging to pull out of an agreement aiming to reduce carbon emissions.
Amina J. Mohammed says the international community has a responsibility to convince President Donald Trump of the benefits of fighting global warming after he repeatedly pledged to pull out of an agreement aiming to reduce carbon emissions.
“I think that where people are not well-informed, we have to go back and do that. It seems as though we are taking 10 steps forward and five back, but it’s an imperative. We don’t have an option,” Mohammed tells Newsweek in an exclusive interview. “The U.S. is an important leader in this and we believe that they will do the right thing once they are better informed about it.”
Mohammed says it will be “very difficult” for Trump to completely pull out of the Paris climate deal brokered by President Barack Obama and world leaders in 2016, which seeks to limit global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The United States has already ratified the deal and the White House would have to wait three years to announce a withdrawal. Officially exiting the compact would take another year after the formal request.
Nevertheless, Mohammed, the former environment minister of Nigeria, says she and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are “concerned” by the noises coming out of the U.S.
“As one of the leading emitters, it is important that we understand [America’s] responsibility to the international community. The challenges are real, they do have implications for the rest of the world,” says Mohammed, speaking via telephone from Marrakech, Morocco, where she was a speaker at the 2017 Ibrahim Governance Weekend, an event aimed at promoting good governance in Africa.
The U.S. is the world’s second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China. It’s also the second-largest emitter per capita, with each U.S. citizen producing almost 20 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year.
While campaigning for the White House, Trump promised to “cancel” the Paris deal. Trump has since said he has an “open mind” about the agreement, but several of his advisers have said the president intends to withdraw from the deal.
In March, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Clean Power Plan introduced under Obama that sought to close hundreds of coal-fired …
The Magic Disappearing $100 Billion UN Climate Fund
Shocking news—the magic $100 billion climate fund appears not to be taking shape! Even optimistic estimates sat the fund is $40 billion short, and developing countries say that understates the problem. The Financial Times:
Climate ministers from Europe, India, Brazil and South Africa have gone to Beijing in recent weeks, hoping to sustain momentum from the Paris talks despite the Trump administration’s dismantling of US regulations meant to limit American emissions.
But discussions have quickly run up against the issue of financing. “Developed countries have not met their commitments. In their reports a lot of their commitment is in the form of development aid. That doesn’t meet the commitment to contribute to new funds,” China’s top climate change negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, told a briefing on Tuesday. “A lot of countries don’t want to chip in. I said to the European minister: that’s your problem as developed countries. It’s your responsibility to work together and sort it out.”
First world donors have been busily relabeling other foreign aid as contributions to the climate kitty. For developing countries, this is a cheat—they expect $100 billion in new money.
Or, to put it more accurately, they are not nearly stupid and naive enough to believe the lies Western diplomats tell when trying to bamboozle naive green voters at home that they are “Doing Something” about climate change. So they don’t really expect all that money, but hope to use these commitments to pry something out of the West. Also, since the West will certainly default on these bogus commitments, developing countries have all the justification they need to blow off their own commitments when the time comes.
This, one notes, is the house of cards that the last Administration claimed was a big piece of its legacy.…
Time Mag: ‘Climate Change Deniers Have Pres. Trump’s Ear. But Now They Want Results’
And yet to some of the strongest opponents of Obama’s environmental policy, particularly those who deny the existence of global warming, Trump is not going far enough. Despite having called climate change a “hoax” before his election, these critics think Trump has been ducking bigger fights like withdrawing from the international Paris Agreement on climate change and undoing the scientific underpinning for the EPA’s climate change rules.
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While the choice of former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state upset environmental groups, Tillerson has emerged as a comparatively moderate voice in the administration, including advocating for the U.S. to remain in the landmark Paris Agreement. At the Heartland Conference, that stance has erased any residual goodwill from his stint running a multi-national oil company.
“Secretary of State Rex Tillerson think it’s really nice to be able to go to international meetings and pal around with his fellow foreign ministers,” Ebell said. “Rex Tillerson may be from Texas and he may have been CEO of Exxon, but he’s part of the swamp.”
As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen times and he has personally questioned the science behind climate change. Yet, his methodical approach to dismantling many EPA regulations and functions has come in for criticism. While Lehr called Pruitt a “good choice,” he accused him of moving too slowly.
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Still, those who deny the science behind climate change are in a position to influence U.S. policy for years to come. Trump does not have a science advisor and his administration has turned to skeptics for guidance on energy and environmental policy issues. Lehr, who says the greenhouse effect plays a negligible role in the climate, delivered a presentation to administration officials designed to help Trump defend his claim that climate change is hoax.
“Every administration is a mixed bag,” Ebell tells TIME. “I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed. I would say I am anxious.”…
UN Paris Accord Is A Dead Deal Walking As $100 Billion Climate Fund Disappears
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 Shocking news—the magic $100 billion climate fund appears not to be taking shape! First world donors have been busily relabeling other foreign aid as contributions to the climate kitty. For developing countries, this is a cheat — they expect $100 billion in new money. Or, to put it more accurately, they are not nearly stupid and naive enough to believe the lies Western diplomats tell when trying to bamboozle naive green voters at home that they are “Doing Something” about climate change. So they don’t really expect all that money, but hope to use these commitments to pry something out of the West. This, one notes, is the house of cards that the last Administration claimed was a big piece of its legacy. —The American Interest, 11 April 2017 China, Brazil, India and South Africa have urged industrialized countries to honor financial commitments made in Paris in 2015 to help developing countries fight against global climate change, they said in a statement on Tuesday. Following a meeting in Beijing, climate change ministers from the “BASIC” bloc of four major emerging economies called on rich countries “to honor their commitments and increase climate finance towards the $100 billion goal”, and said more clarity was needed to “track and account for” those pledges. —Reuters, 11 April 2017 Climate ministers from Europe, India, Brazil and South Africa have gone to Beijing in recent weeks, hoping to sustain momentum from the Paris talks despite the Trump administration’s dismantling of US regulations meant to limit American emissions. But discussions have quickly run up against the issue of financing. “Developed countries have not met their commitments. In their reports a lot of their commitment is in the form of development aid. That doesn’t meet the commitment to contribute to new funds,” China’s top climate change negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, told a briefing on Tuesday. –Lucy Hornby, Financial Times, 11 April 2017 1) Paris Climate Accord Is A Dead Deal Walking As $100 Billion Climate Fund Disappears 2) Emerging Nations Urge Trump Administration To Honour Obama’s $100 Billion Climate Funding Pledge 3) No Consensus: G7 Energy Ministers Fail To Agree On Climate Change 4) Trump’s Climate Demands Roil U.S. Allies |
Cheers! Trump Refuses To Sign G7 Statement Endorsing UN Paris Climate Agreement
The U.S. refused to sign onto a statement with other G7 countries to commit to the implementation of the Paris climate agreement, which President Donald Trump promised to withdraw from on the campaign trail.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said the U.S. “is in the process of reviewing many of its policies and reserves its position on this issue, which will be communicated at a future date,” Italy’s industry and energy minister Carlo Calenda said in a statement.
Calenda said other G7 members “reaffirmed their commitment towards the implementation of the Paris Agreement to effectively limit the increase in global temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial level.”
The Trump administration would not sign onto a statement mentioning Paris, since the president is still deciding whether or not to keep his campaign pledge. Perry also wanted the G7 to include support for coal and natural gas in its statement.
“Therefore, we believe it is wise for countries to use and pursue highly efficient energy resources,” Perry said in a statement after his meeting in Rome with energy ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the European Union.…
Climate change hangs over Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping
President Trump is expected to discuss the Paris climate change deal when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. But don’t expect much in the way of agreement.
Xi will meet with Trump beginning Thursday at the president’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, fresh from a visit to Finland where climate change and collaboration on Arctic policy were top points of discussion.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, in response to Trump’s recent executive order rolling back former President Barack Obama’s climate regulations, said China will push forward with its plan to cut fossil fuel emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goal.
China, the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, pledged to put a peak on its emissions by 2030 in a deal with the U.S. that also is part of its Paris goal. China produces about one-fourth of the world’s carbon emissions, topping the second-place United States, which produces about 15 percent.…
US coal companies reportedly ask White House to remain in UN Paris climate pact
Two of the top U.S. coal companies reportedly asked the White House to back down on President Trump’s vow to pull out of the landmark Paris climate pact, arguing that the deal could protect its global interests.
Cloud Peak Energy and Peabody Energy executives told White House officials over the last few weeks that staying in the climate deal may give U.S. negotiators a change to advocate for coal in the future, Reuters reported Tuesday.
“The future is foreign markets, so the last thing you want to do if you are a coal company is to give up a U.S. seat in the international climate discussions and let the Europeans control the agenda,” a U.S. official familiar with the talks told Reuters. “They can’t afford for the most powerful advocate for fossil fuels to be away from the table.”
Richard Reavey, Cloud Peak’s vice president of government affairs, said staying in the accord and trying to create a “reasonable path forward” on fossil fuel technologies is a reasonable stance.
Officials said the coal industry wants to ensure the Paris deal provides a financial role for storage technology as well as role for low-emission coal-powered plants. The industry also hopes the agreement would protect multilateral funding for global coal projects through international bodies like the World Bank, Reuters reported.…
Big oil climate appeasement: ExxonMobil executives urge Trump to keep U.S. in UN Climate Agreement
ExxonMobil executives recently urged President Trump to break a campaign promise and keep the U.S. in the UN’s disastrous Paris climate agreement.
Secretary of State and former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson agrees with his old colleagues and has said he favors taking the Trump Administration in the same direction.
This would be a huge mistake.
President Trump signed an executive order designed to roll back the Obama Administration’s global warming policies and end its war on energy. The President’s E.O. makes no mention of the Paris agreement.
But if he’s going to push America toward energy independence, dumping this ill-founded UN agreement is an absolute must.
In recent years, energy companies – Exxon in particular – have been constant targets of Green campaigners. This often makes them weak-kneed and fearful. They’d like nothing better than to rid themselves of these pesky Green gadflies and improve their image among the elitist media.
To accomplish this, businesses all too often seek to buy off the Greens rather than stand up to them. Exxon’s position on the UN treaty appears to follow in this ignoble tradition. Fueling the Greens with corporate credibility and cash is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, like “feeding a crocodile hoping it’ll eat you last.”
President Trump should see through Exxon’s attempt to “greenwash” away its public relations problems, keep his campaign promise, and free America from the UN climate agreement.
Trump’s EPA Chief Calls Paris Agreement Raw Deal For US Citizens
BY CHRIS WHITE
President Donald Trump should continue international discussions on environmental issues even if the Paris climate agreement is a “bad deal,” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt said Sunday.
The Oklahoma Republican did not tip his hat as to the future of the much-talked about climate deal, which was signed by former President Barack Obama and requires the U.S. to dramatically reduce greenhouse gasses. Trump’s Democratic predecessor signed the deal last year without the Senate’s consent.
“To demonstrate the leadership that we have shown on this issue with China and India and other nations is very important and discussions should ensue,” Pruitt said during an interview on Fox News, “but what Paris represents is a bad deal for this country.”…