Message to Trump? Countries say climate fight ‘irreversible’

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier said action on climate change has become “unstoppable” and predicted that Trump would drop plans to quit the global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels.

“This really is a turning point”.

Mr Kerry spoke of his trip last week to Antarctica, where he met scientists alarmed at the trends. We’ll be building stronger public infrastructure, supporting clean and affordable energy, strengthening disaster preparedness, and supporting low-carbon economic growth.

Still, some United States corporations have already made significant efforts to reduce their environmental footprints.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has calmed fears that his country could pull out of the ongoing UN-led negotiations to fight global warming.

China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told Bloomberg that Trump’s claims of china creating global warming to make the USA manufacturing non-competitive can not be true, as other Republican presidents too, worked on climate negotiations in years past. “It also highlights the need to invest in low-carbon technology development, and safeguard and enhance our natural resources – such as forests, soils and grasslands – that help remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it”.

But this is one of many areas in which Trump’s campaign pledges have been contradictory.

Such a rationale and the anger that would be triggered by a USA walk-out of the Paris Agreement, particularly amongst the European Union (EU) and China, could induce the parties that remain serious about the agreement to adopt a retaliatory posture.

“This adaptation finance gap was unfinished business back in Paris, and the Marrakech talks seem to be just kicking it down the road once more”, said Jan Kowalzig, of Oxfam Germany.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Trump, who takes oath of office in January next year, is on record saying climate change as a hoax and that he will pull the U.S. out of subsequent climate negotiations.

Bill Hare, director of the Climate Analytics research group, said the U.S.in on the right path toward meeting its target “but a bit more is needed to get there”. Most poignantly for Marrakech, he has loudly declared an intention to “cancel the Paris climate agreement”.

“We welcome the Paris Agreement, adopted under the Convention, its rapid entry into force, with its ambitious goals, its inclusive nature and its reflection of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances, and we affirm our commitment to its full implementation”, the statement reads. “As one of the world’s top carbon emitters – and one of its richest countries – the U.S.’s participation in the treaty is paramount”.

“There’s talk about, do you send it to the Senate to be rejected?”

“I urge other parties that have not yet ratified the agreement to do so”, said President Kenyatta.

China’s vice foreign minister, Liu Zhenmin, said during a climate conference in Morocco that Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush supported the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) before China even joined global negotiations on climate change, Bloomberg reports.