Trump climate change

Vanuit klimaatsceptisch perspectief gaat het niet goed met Trump’s klimaatbeleid. Op vele terreinen heeft de Amerikaanse president zijn verkiezingsbeloften waargemaakt. Maar wat het klimaatbeleid zit er nu de klad in, althans wat de uittreding uit het klimaatverdrag van Parijs betreft.

Binnen het Trump-kamp bestaan er tegenstellingen over de wenselijke koers.

Onder de titel, ‘Friends, Opponents Sound the Defeat of President Trump’s Climate Agenda’, schreef Eric Worrall voor ‘Watts Up With That’ (WUWT)

Trump supporter Myron Ebell, former vice-president Al Gore and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed all have one thing in common – they have all just independently suggested that President Trump’s campaign climate agenda is on the verge of being defeated. …

Valerie Volcovici van Reuters schreef daarover:

The man who led President Donald Trump’s transition team for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Myron Ebell, told a conservative conference last month that the new administration is moving too slowly to unravel climate change regulations.

In closed-door remarks to members of the conservative Jefferson Institute in Virginia on April 18, a recording of which was obtained by Reuters, Ebell said Trump’s administration had made a series of missteps, including delays in appointing key EPA officials, that could hamper efforts to cut red tape for industry.

“This is an impending disaster for the Trump administration,” Ebell, a prominent climate change doubter, said in the recording provided to the Center for Media and Democracy and shared with Reuters. …

Zie verder hier.

Eric Worrell:

Tearing up the Paris Agreement is something President Trump could do with the stroke of a pen, as he has done with other Obama executive orders.

The continuation of the USA’s commitment to the Paris Agreement is a symbol of the swamp’s ongoing victory over President Trump’s reform agenda. My guess is Trump’s opponents, both within and outside the Republican Party, are leading the President on, promising cooperation in return for concessions – but drip feeding the President on fulfilling those promises.

This is how the swamp survives – they weather the storm, and do everything in their power to undermine, retard and destroy anyone who might stand in their path. They don’t have to defeat President Trump face to face, they just have to block him, to convince him to sit when he should be standing, to undermine his confidence, to convince the President’s supporters that there is no hope, that their trust and faith was misplaced. To convince Trump supporters to stay home on swamp day.

President Trump, you must take back the initiative. Tear up the Paris Agreement. Do something for all those hard working people in the heartlands who made the effort to vote for hope of a better life. Deliver them from the carbon pricing parasites.

What have you got to lose?

Lees verder hier.

Maar op andere terreinen is het nieuwe Amerikaanse klimaat- cum energiebeleid echter al duidelijk merkbaar.

Onder de titel, ‘Trump’s Budget Eliminates Funding For UN Global Warming Programs’ schreef Michael Bastasch voor ‘The Daily Caller’:

The Trump administration has proposed eliminating nearly $1.6 billion in international programs aimed at promoting green energy and fighting global warming.

That includes providing no funding to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund (GCF), which hands out money for programs to adapt or mitigate global warming.

The White House said this proposal is in line with President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to “cease payments to the United Nations’ climate change programs.” The budget “fulfills that pledge,” according to budget documents.

The Obama administration gave nearly $1 billion to the GCF in 2016. The Trump administration proposed eliminating that funding, along with zeroing out funding for three other climate programs. …

“America must put the energy needs of American families and businesses first and continue implementing a plan that ensures energy security and economic vitality for decades to come, including by promoting development of the Nation’s vast energy resources,” White House budget documents read.

Trump promised to “cancel” UN global warming payments while on the campaign trail. Trump also promised to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, which the Obama administration joined in 2016.

“We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars. We don’t even know who’s doing what with the money,” Trump said in November.

Trump’s budget makes good on that promise, and Congress is likely to go along with these cuts.

On the other hand, Trump has yet to make a decision on whether or not he’ll keep his promise to pull out of the Paris Agreement.

The White House is split on the issue. European governments and multinational corporations have lobbied the administration to stay in the Paris agreement, which they say may fall apart without U.S. involvement.

Aldus Bastasch.

Lees verder hier.

Voortzetting van de deelname aan de klimaatovereenkomst van Parijs en de daarbij behorende consultatie kan twee kanten op werken. Het kan tot een versoepeling van het Amerikaanse standpunt leiden. Maar met actieve klimaatdiplomatie van de huidige Amerikaanse regering kunnen ook de vele landen die daar niet zo enthousiast over zijn, gaan schuiven in de richting van het Amerikaanse standpunt.

We leven in interessante tijden.

Voor mijn eerdere bijdragen over klimaat en aanverwante zaken zie hierhier, hier, hier en hier.

Laatste nieuws.

22 Republikeinse senatoren hebben Trump dringend verzocht uit ‘Parijs’ te stappen. Zie hier.