Climate talks fear loss of US backing
Print Edition
A UN climate conference dominated by Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from a hard-won pact ended in Marrakech yesterday amid fears that the goal of curtailing worst-case-scenario global warming may not be achieved without US backing.
The first gathering of the UN’s climate forum since last year’s adoption of the Paris Agreement to curtail global warming was tasked with drafting a roadmap for its implementation.
But it has been overshadowed by uncertainty about US President-elect Trump’s vow to “cancel” the pact and its curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
On Thursday, the nearly 200 parties to the UN’s climate convention made a rare united appeal for “the highest political commitment” to combat climate change.
“Our climate is warming at an alarming and unprecedented rate and we have an urgent duty to respond,” they said in the “Marrakech Action Proclamation.”
“We call for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority.”
Many fear that Trump, who has described climate change as a “hoax” perpetrated by China, will act on his threat to withdraw from the pact, thus ruining years of painstakingly negotiated political goodwill.
Worse, a US withdrawal would leave the cause without billions of dollars of finance for developing countries to make the shift to clean energy or the means to shore up defenses against climate change impacts that can no longer be avoided.
“There’s no doubt that if Mr Trump makes sharp cuts to the federal government support of developing countries that will be noticed and have an impact,” veteran climate negotiations analyst Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists told reporters.
The Paris pact sets the goal of limiting average global warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, by cutting greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
Countries, including the United States, have pledged to curb emissions under the deal by shifting to renewable energy sources. But Trump has vowed to boost oil, gas and coal.
Experts say warming over the Paris goal will result in rising sea levels, worsening storms and droughts, and conflict over ever-scarcer resources.
US government scientists said on Thursday that the first 10 months of the year were the hottest in modern times — and 2016 will likely surpass 2015 as the warmest year on record.
Without the US, delegates and analysts say, the Paris goal will be even harder to reach.
“The chances of the rest of the world contributing the emissions reductions commitments that the US is required to undertake, or covering the shortfall in climate finance that the US is required to contribute, is unlikely to happen,” said Mohamed Adow, of Christian Aid. “That is scary.”
While waiting for the in-coming US president to make his climate position clear, many now look to the rest of the world to bolster the Paris Agreement.
The BASIC group of Brazil, South Africa, India and China said they would “continue and strengthen” their own actions, while stressing “there can be no backtracking on commitments from developed countries and no attempt to renegotiate the terms of the agreement reached in Paris.”
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