At G-7, Trump's Paris Agreement opposition will face economic arguments from world leaders
By Andrew O'Reilly Published May 24, 2017 One of the biggest questions being asked ahead of the G-7 summit in Taormina, Italy, is whether President Trump will fulfill his campaign promise to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change or if his European counterparts can convince the U.S. leader to keep his country in the historic – and controversial – accord.
With Trump’s inner circle split on the issue – climate change skeptics like chief strategist Steve Bannon and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt want the U.S. to drop out of the agreement, while former ExxonMobil CEO and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner are in favor of remaining in the accord – analysts say that G-7 leaders have a prime opportunity to make their case to the U.S. president.
“What we have seen from Trump is he takes personally the one-on-one talks he has with other world leaders,” David Waskow, director of the World Resources Institute’s climate team, told Fox News. “That kind of persuasion can have some real effect if it is delivered in a very personal way.”
The rest of the G-7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – are all strong supporters of the Paris Agreement, as are the other 188 countries that have signed it, and the idea of the U.S. withdrawing from the accord has become a global concern. The U.S. is the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide and its adherence to the emissions-cutting deal penned under the Obama administration is seen, by some, as vital to keeping other nations in compliance.
A U.N. panel of climate scientists says it is at least 95 percent probable that man-made greenhouse gas emissions -- especially burning fossil fuels -- are the main cause of climate change since 1950. In each of the past three years, global average temperatures have hit record highs, and the continued warming of the planet is projected to cause worsening droughts, sea level rises, floods, heatwaves and extinctions of wildlife.
On the campaign trail last year, then-candidate Trump was highly critical of the Paris Agreement – promising to “cancel” the deal and calling climate change a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese – and since taking office in January his administration has rolled back a number of Obama-era environmental regulations in the hopes of breathing new life into the struggling coal and fossil fuel industries. The accord has no sanctions for non-compliance but has a principle that nations will set ever tougher goals for action this century.
In the last month, however, Trump has wavered on his pledge to withdraw from the agreement as he faces not only a divide over the issue within his own White House but pressure from a diverse and large number of industries. Retail giants like Walmart, tech companies such as Apple and even fossil titans from Chevron to Royal Dutch Shell have all voiced support for the accord.
“It would be unhelpful on a number of fronts,” Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, told the Financial Times this week about the possibility of a U.S. withdrawal. “With the U.S. being the largest investment destination for a company like Shell, yes, I think I would regret having a lot of business here that potentially could be at a disadvantage because of [the] implications of that decision to pull out of Paris.”
<..snip..>
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/24/at-g-7-trumps-paris-agreement-opposition-will-face-economic-arguments-from-world-leaders.html
