This year’s U. N. climate change conference may not be as impassioned as last year’s in Paris, where more than 100 heads of states attended to ensure that a sweeping agreement was sealed, but the venue in Marrakech, Morocco, was thrust into an uproar of uncertainty and anxiety when business tycoon Donald Trump was announced winner of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 9.
The President-elect has widely been seen as a climate change skeptic. He has said time and again that climate change is a hoax — a hoax invented by China to harm U. S. industries. He also pledged to “cancel” the landmark Paris climate agreement and “stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.” Within U.S. domestic energy and environmental realms, Trump has vowed to expand the coal industry, despite the fact that coal consumption is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
The election results have thus put a big question mark on the fate of the Paris Agreement and the cause of tackling climate change in the United States as well as the world at large. The United States contributes around 16 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, and the Obama administration pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below its 2005 level by 2025 and to “make best efforts” to reduce its emissions by 28 percent.
Jacqueline McGlade, chief scientist of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), told China.org.cn on Wednesday that “the UNEP greatly hopes that the outcome of the U. S. election will not distract us from the real challenges that lie ahead of us.”
She said that the signs of climate change are positive, and more and more American citizens are convinced of the need to tackle climate change. “Listening to the population of the United States, we hope that the president will be open-minded and not make rapid decisions that will be not only detriment to the United States but also to the rest of the world,” she added.
The scientist said that the UNEP hopes that non-state actors in the United States can continue to contribute to the Paris Agreement and the global fight against climate change.
The election result has also apparently dismayed climate and environment NGOs and enthusiasts at the ongoing COP22. Katherine Egland, the chair of the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee of the US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told China.org.cn that she was “disappointed” by the results.
Alden Meyer, director of the Strategy and Policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U. S.-based NGO, warned that the possible “inaction” of the president-elect in climate change would have ramifications in other realms as well. “If President Trump will not honor the U.S. commitments under the Paris Agreement, it will negatively impact his ability to get cooperation from other world leaders on other issues such as trade and terrorism.”
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(Via: NewsGhana)
