Do-or-die: EU pushes Trump to stick to Paris climate deal

[webfact]

Do-or-die: EU pushes Trump to stick to Paris climate deal

By Alissa de Carbonnel and Valerie Volcovici

REUTERS

 

European Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete attends a news conference in Beijing, China March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

 

BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - EU officials are scrambling to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump not pull out of the Paris climate accord after his advisers warned of legal problems if Washington stayed in but lowered its commitments.

 

European Union sources said European ministers and EU officials have been lobbying senior White House staff after hearing Trump was leaning heavily towards exiting the global pact because of the legal problems that could arise if Washington revised its climate commitments downward.

 

Trump is expected to announce a decision as early as next week along with other energy policy changes, including ordering opening up LNG exports and Arctic drilling.

 

"If the biggest economy in the world dumps the whole thing ... we all have to worry," one EU source told Reuters. "We are reaching out at all possible levels ... to try to explain why they do not need to leave the Paris agreement."

 

Four U.S. sources briefed on White House meetings, who asked not to be named, told Reuters on Tuesday that opponents of the 2015 accord to cap greenhouse gas emissions had won the upper hand in recent days about whether to pull out or remain in the accord with a reduced commitment.

 

Senior administration officials - including chief of staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon, White House Counsel Donald McGahn and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt - argued Washington risked legal challenges if it lowered its climate goals while remaining a party to the deal.

 

The sources said White House lawyers had argued in a memo recently that changing the U.S. target, known as the Nationally Determined Contribution, could trigger these complications.

 

A White House spokeswoman said a decision had not yet been made, and gave no further details. Trump said at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday that he would announce a "big decision" on the Paris agreement within two weeks.

 

EU Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, who has telephoned White House officials to press them on the climate issue, said "there is room for the new U.S. administration to chart its own path."

 

"We all continue to hope the U.S. will find a way to remain within the Paris Agreement," he told reporters after a meeting with Iran's environment minister in Tehran on Sunday.

   

'ALARM'

 

Trump vowed during his campaign to "cancel the Paris Climate Agreement" within 100 days of becoming president, part of a broader plan to sweep away Obama-era environmental protections he said were hobbling the economy.

 

But since being elected, he has been mostly quiet on the issue. Scores of large U.S. companies and several Republican lawmakers have urged him to keep America in the deal as a way to protect American industry interests overseas.

 

The accord, agreed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, seeks to limit planetary warming by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases from burning fossil fuels.

 

The United States committed to reducing its emissions by between 26 percent and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 - a level that the Trump administration is unlikely to support.

 

As recently as last week, advocates for remaining in the agreement - including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner - seemed to have Trump's ear.

 

EU lawyers studying the Paris accord, another EU source said, say nothing in the Paris deal prohibits a participant from seeking to reduce its commitments.

 

That view was upheld by Sue Biniaz, a former State Department legal adviser who left earlier this year and was a key architect behind the Paris agreement.

 

"Countries might criticise the decision but it wouldn't be a violation of the agreement as a legal matter," she said.

 

An overwhelming majority of scientists say the burning of fossil fuels like petroleum and coal is a main driver of global climate change, triggering sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms.

 

(Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-04

[Somtamnication]

Before he decides on the EU climate decision, he should first consult with Andrew Jackson and other dead Americans. He only listens to them and living neo-cons.

[darksidedog]

Donald screwing up America is bad, but pulling out of this treaty would be a disaster for mankind and the planet. America? What have you done?

[tomwct]

President Trump has no obligation to accept Obama's Deal since this was never approved by Congress. If I was Trump, I would accept the terms and conditions the Chinese got, which requires them to nothing for 20 years. Now that's a deal. IF they present those terms

to the USA, I think Congress will approve.

[johnarth]

Trump knows there is no such thing as global warming, as put forward by the media, yes f he pulls out it will bust the whole thing wide open.

[klauskunkel]

Trump: "Hey, you know what? I just build the wall a bit higher, forcing the clouds to like turn around. That will cool the weather down, and that's a fact. And you know the beauty of it all, the Mexicans will pay for it."

[Phuket Stan]

Where have all of Daft Donald's Defenders gone of late....is it holiday time for them

[sanukjim]

31 minutes ago, Phuket Stan said:

Where have all of Daft Donald's Defenders gone of late....is it holiday time for them

 

31 minutes ago, Phuket Stan said:

Where have all of Daft Donald's Defenders gone of late....is it holiday time for them

They would have a battle of" WITS" with you but they don't to battle an" Unarmed "foe.

[dunroaming]

3 hours ago, sanukjim said:

 

They would have a battle of" WITS" with you but they don't to battle an" Unarmed "foe.

Quite right Much better they just lick their wounds quietly.

[ToS2014]

Phew, just checked and the US is NOT part of the EU.

[sanukjim]

3 hours ago, dunroaming said:

Quite right Much better they just lick their wounds quietly.

See what I mean about you being "Unarmed".

[mrwebb8825]

On 5/4/2017 at 6:22 AM, webfact said:

EU Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, who has telephoned White House officials to press them on the climate issue, said "there is room for the new U.S. administration to chart its own path."

President Trump will be very relieved to find out he has the EU's permission to do what he wants.