UN officials told reporters in London on Thursday they were not sure how to interpret the move, which follows President Trump’s appointment of an environmental regulator who has questioned climate science and a secretary of state who ran ExxonMobil, the world’s largest listed oil company.
“We got an email saying there is a US delegation coming in May,” said Nick Nuttall, communications co-ordinator for the UN climate change secretariat in Bonn. “It looked like it was a pretty standard delegation that they would send.”
Patricia Espinosa, the secretariat’s executive secretary, said she hoped this was a sign the US might remain part of the Paris deal that virtually every country adopted in December 2015.
“Of course I hope this means they are not really thinking of [pulling out]” she said, adding that it was hard to be sure because any country withdrawing from the accord still faced an effective waiting period of four years and would therefore be expected to send a delegation to UN talks in the interim.
Ms Espinosa hopes to meet senior Trump administration officials in Washington next week, where she plans to emphasize the importance of the Paris deal. “We want to engage with them to really share with them why this agenda is so important and why it is in their interest,” she said.
Read more at US to Send Delegates to Bonn Climate Talks Despite Trump Vow
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