The host of global climate talks on Saturday insisted that US president-elect Donald Trump’s victory has not cast a cloud over the negotiations tasked with translating the landmark Paris climate pact into reality.
Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Salaheddine Mezouar put on a brave face as the talks hit the half-way point, saying they remained on track for the arrival this week of about 60 heads of state.
“No, the election of Donald Trump does not hover over this COP anymore,” said Mezouar, using the acronym for the Conference of the Parties meeting in Marrakesh.
He said that countries, including China, have reaffirmed their commitments to the 196-nation Paris Agreement, which was inked in December last year and entered into force last week, record time for an international treaty.
The tally of ratifications has hit 105, with new ones added almost daily, he said.
Also on Saturday, Germany presented a plan to purge up to 95 percent of the carbon dioxide from its economy by mid-century, a voluntary step other major carbon emitters have also pledged to take.
“The work is going very well,” UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said, adding that technical committees would finish up in time for the arrival of presidents and ministers tomorrow.
However, the elephant in the room remained, despite efforts to ignore or banish it.
“The president-elect removed from his Web site the section concerning the Paris Agreement, which is a good sign,” Mezouar said
A page posted on donaldjtrump.com did briefly disappear, but apparently only for technical reasons. The promise oft repeated during the campaign — that has deeply shaken the UN talks — is in fact still there, black-on-white.
“We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement,” it reads, presented as part of Trump’s 100-day action plan, adding that his administration will also “stop all payments of US tax dollars to UN global warming programs,” it says.
US President Barack Obama’s administration promised US$3 billion to a special fund for poor nations already feeling the lash of climate-enhanced extreme weather, from superstorms to droughts to heatwaves. However, the US has only given US$500,000 so far.
A senior US official — the first to comment publicly in Marrakesh since the election — counseled a “wait-and-see” attitude.
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