03 June, 2017
"Climate change is an unprecedented and growing threat", he warned, announcing that he would host a United Nations climate summit in 2019 to promote worldwide support for the Paris Agreement.
European leaders pressed Trump to stay in the Paris climate accord during the president's overseas trip last week.
While Trump and Pence have suggested the possibility of renegotiating the agreement, the leaders of Italy, Germany and France have said that won't happen.
"Four years of the Trump administration may have only modest consequences, but eight years of bad policy would probably wreck the world's chances of keeping warming below the worldwide target of 2 degrees Celsius", Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and global affairs at Princeton University, said by email. "The odds of our avoiding the climate-danger zone would fade to zero".
Other European leaders issued more explicit appeals to the USA government not to abandon global measures against climate change. The scenarios that scientists are looking at depend on measurements of air and water temperatures taken at hundreds of sites around the world, as well as complex models about how trends will evolve in the coming decades.
The senator also warned that reforming the deal would not go far enough, as opposed to completely withdrawing, because staying in the agreement "keeps the door open for future administrations to use it as means to impose more costly and ineffective energy regulations".
As President Donald Trump is deciding whether the USA should remain in the Paris climate deal, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling on the world to unite to fight the "unprecedented and growing threat" of climate change. "This would not be an "America First" move". The administration has also sought to reverse Obama-era policies meant to reduce US carbon emissions, such as an electricity plan that would have nudged dirty coal out of the electricity mix.
But Cohn, Trump's chief White House economic adviser, told reporters during the trip overseas that the president's views on climate change were "evolving" following the discussions with European leaders.
Supporters of the climate pact are concerned that a USA exit could lead other nations to weaken their commitments or also withdraw, softening an accord that scientists have said is critical to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.
Making his first address on climate since taking the United Nations helm five months ago, Guterres said it was "absolutely essential" that the world implements the 2015 agreement "with increased ambition".
White House officials cautioned that details were still being hammered out and that, although close, the decision on withdrawing from the global accord - agreed to by almost 200 countries in Paris in 2015 - was not finalised.
Trump met Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has favored remaining in the agreement.
The president, however, argued the agreement had disadvantaged the U.S.
Worldwide leaders began reacting to the reports of Trump's plans. The decision has no direct impact on major USA regulations on power plants and auto rules now aimed at reducing carbon emissions, although those are now under review by Trump as well.
"The journey from Paris is well underway", Guterres said. Supporters of the deal say it's not an either-or choice.
The key variables are what policies Trump enacts and how long they remain in force.
In his speech, Guterres took aim at two Trump administration shibboleths: That the cause of global warming has yet to be established, and that efforts to fight it constitute a threat to the economy. USA inaction on greenhouse gases may eventually discourage other countries from continuing their own efforts to cut back, said Oppenheimer at Princeton.
He said he will strengthen North-South, South-South and other partnerships to implement the Paris Agreement.
The emissions goals are voluntary with no real consequences for countries that fail to meet them.
"Delay is the worst enemy for any climate target and can only be made worse by cutting research and energy technologies that would be crucial to get back on track again for target", they wrote in the journal Nature earlier this year.
