Trump pulls back on climate change
Print Edition
US President-elect Donald Trump says he is keeping an open mind on whether to pull out of a landmark international accord to fight climate change, a softening of his stance toward global warming.
Trump told the New York Times in an interview he thinks there is “some connectivity” between human activity and global warming, despite previously describing climate change as a hoax.
A source on Trump’s transition team told reporters earlier this month that the New York businessman was seeking quick ways to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change.
But asked on Tuesday whether the US would withdraw, he said: “I’m looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it.”
A US withdrawal from the pact, agreed to by almost 200 countries, would set back international efforts to limit rising temperatures that have been linked to the extinction of animals and plants, heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, also said he was thinking about climate change and American competitiveness and “how much it will cost our companies,” according to a Times reporter at the interview.
Two people advising Trump’s transition team on energy and environment issues said they were caught off guard by his remarks.
A shift on global warming is the latest sign Trump might be backing away from some of his campaign rhetoric as life in the Oval Office approaches.
Trump has said he might have to build a fence, rather than a wall, in some areas of the US-Mexican border to stop illegal immigration, tweaking one of his signature campaign promises.
Also in Tuesday’s interview, he showed little appetite for pressing investigations into his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways,” he said.
But Trump said “no” when asked if he would rule out investigating Clinton over her family’s charitable foundation or her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s first term.
If Trump does abandon his vow to appoint a special prosecutor for Clinton, it will be a reversal of a position he mentioned almost daily on the campaign trail, when he dubbed his rival “Crooked Hillary.”
His comments to the Times about Clinton angered some of his supporters.
Breitbart News, the outlet once led by Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, published a story under the headline “Broken promise: Trump ‘doesn’t wish to pursue’ Clinton e-mail charges.”
The FBI investigated Clinton’s e-mail practices, concluding in July that her actions were careless but there were no grounds for bringing charges.
The Clinton Foundation charity has also been scrutinized for donations it received, but there has been no evidence foreign donors obtained favors from the State Department while Clinton headed it.
Trump brushed off fears over conflicts of interest between his job as president and his family’s businesses.
“The law’s totally on my side, the president can’t have a conflict of interest,” he said. “My company’s so unimportant to me relative to what I’m doing.”
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