China rubbishes Trump’s climate change “hoax” claims

Ministers and government officials from nearly 200 countries gathered in Marrakech this week are awaiting a decision by President-elect Trump on whether he’ll pull the US out of the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.

The election of climate change skeptic Donald Trump as president is likely to end the USA leadership role in the worldwide fight against global warming and may lead to the emergence of a new and unlikely champion: China.

Trump has called global warming a “hoax” on social media and pledged during his campaign to “cancel” the landmark Paris climate agreement adopted a year ago.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that if humans carry on with a “business as usual” burning fossil fuels, the average global temperature will rise by between 2.6 and 4.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

Addressing the U.N. climate talks in Morocco, he said the United States will meet all the set worldwide targets.

Countries, including the United States, have pledged to curb emissions under the deal by moving to renewable energy sources.

A European Union official says he believes the US will continue to engage in global climate talks, even under President-elect Donald Trump.

The United States, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world after China, got a “poor” rating, losing ground across all categories, the report found.

But Kerry said the US was already in the midst of a clean energy transition that would continue regardless of policy-making.

“Millions around the world are now employed by the renewable energy and if we make the right choices, millions more people will be put to work”.

“Decisions made in the next few years will largely determine if we’re able to achieve the 1.5 C warming threshold agreed in Paris”, said Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru’s former environment minister who now leads environmental group WWF International’s work on climate change.

Major companies joined the chorus, calling for “continuation of low-carbon policies” and investment in a low-carbon economy.

The Paris agreement is a climate change agreement agreed by nearly 200 countries for holding emissions to a level which help prevent global warming from rising more than 2 degree Celsius.

Liu reiterated that climate change was not a hoax and that it was possible for Republicans to continue to support the process of addressing it, the delegate said.

The Paris accord, aiming to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions this century, was driven by increased scientific certainty that man-made emissions drive heat waves, floods and rising sea levels.

“You need to be as arrogant as men are to believe we changed the climate”. Climate change impacts are already being felt.

According to Liu, the conference is expected to issue an action declaration by the end of its ministerial segment, which will be a political statement demonstrating all parties’ strong support for and confidence in the Paris Agreement.

The idea that Trump, as a businessman, must be in favour of clean energy and innovation, appears to have reassured other business leaders that the Paris Agreement is in safe hands.

Market forces, not politics, will dictate the world’s energy future, the diplomat added.