Anger at EU Climate Chief’s Suggestion US Can Backtrack on Paris

EU commissioner has signaled that the US can downgrade its pledge to the Paris deal, but poor countries say such an act would “undermine global solidarity”

A suggestion by the EU’s climate chief that the US might water down its carbon-cutting pledge to the Paris climate agreement has sparked outrage among veteran negotiators and developing countries.

Diplomats from poor nations told Climate Home that it would amount to indefensible “backsliding” and could “open a Pandora’s box”, while Laurence Tubiana, France’s climate change ambassador at COP21, said US backtracking would violate the spirit of the Paris deal.

EU commissioner for climate action and energy Miguel Arias Cañete has previously said that the Trump presidency might “chart its own path” within the treaty.

Last week, while briefing reporters on a meeting with a senior US official at a summit in Montreal, Cañete said:  “They are willing to re-engage under the Paris Agreement but they want to check some of the terms under which they agreed to participate previously.  We assume that means that the US will revisit at some time the targets put forward by the previous administration.”

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