Friday, March 31, 2017

'Worldwide Momentum' on Climate Change Despite Trump:  U.N. Official

The Eiffel tower is illuminated in green with the words ''Paris Agreement is Done'', to celebrate the Paris U.N. COP21 Climate Change agreement in Paris, France, November 4, 2016. (Credit: Reuters/Jacky Naegelen/File Photo) Click to Enlarge.
Governments have created "worldwide momentum" to slow climate change despite threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the U.N.'s climate chief said on Friday.

"The Paris Agreement remains a remarkable achievement, universally supported by all countries when it was adopted," Patricia Espinosa, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, wrote in a letter to staff.

Trump, who doubts that greenhouse gases from fossil fuels are warming the planet, began undoing former President Barack Obama's policies to slow global warming this week in a shift to favor the U.S. coal industry.

He expects to decide by late May whether to carry out a campaign promise to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement, reached by almost 200 nations.  It sets a goal of phasing out greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of this century.

Espinosa listed signs of "worldwide momentum" including that "solar power capacity globally grew 50 percent in 2016 led by the United States and China" and that ever more governments were passing laws to curb global warming.

"This governmental momentum continues to be underpinned by companies, investors, cities, regions and territories including now many oil majors whose CEOs have in recent weeks publicly spoken out in support of the Paris Agreement," she said.

Read more at 'Worldwide Momentum' on Climate Change Despite Trump:  U.N. Official

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