Global efforts to tackle climate change will suffer a major blow if US President-elect Donald Trump withdraws the country from the Paris Agreement again, the European Union's climate policy chief has warned.
Trump's transition team has been preparing executive orders to withdraw the US from the main global climate change treaty. The US is currently the world's second-largest polluter, behind only China, sources familiar with the matter said.
“If that happens, it will be a serious blow to international climate diplomacy,” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said in an interview with Reuters.
Additionally, the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement would require other countries to “step up climate diplomacy” in response, he said.
“There is no alternative to ensuring that in the end everyone participates, because climate change is indiscriminate,” Hoekstra said of the United Nations climate negotiations. “This is really a problem that the world needs to solve together.”
The Paris Agreement is the centerpiece of the UN climate negotiations. Almost 200 countries are participating in these negotiations. They are discussing measures to reduce emissions. They are also evaluating ways to finance these efforts.
US and China: Collaboration at risk
The US has played a central role in the negotiations, including working with China – the world’s biggest polluter and second-largest economy – to lay the foundations for recent global climate agreements.
A U-turn is expected under Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20. He has called climate change a hoax and pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement during his first term from 2017 to 2021. Last month, he warned the EU that the bloc must buy more U.S. oil and gas or face tariffs.
Hoekstra said the EU will have “constructive engagement” with the new U.S. administration on issues including climate change. He said the European Commission is reaching out to U.S. leaders across the political spectrum, including at the local level.
“Making sure that our American friends, to the extent possible, are really on board and working on this together with us is clearly something that I will strive for,” he said.
Source: Kate Abnett and Christian Levaux | Notícias Agrícolas
