Trump softens stance on Paris climate pact

As some of the world’s largest food companies, we have the scale to make a difference.

The surprise election of Donald Trump – who has called climate change a hoax – to the American presidency left room for uncertainty about the future of worldwide cooperation to limit warming and support adaptation.

“The people of the United States actually think climate change is a concern and they think we should be doing something about it”.

News outlets are reporting almost 200 countries reaffirmed their pledges to fully implement the Paris deal, which aims to somehow keep projected global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

In 2012 he dismissed climate change as a hoax cooked up by the Chinese. Numerous details on how to move forward urgently as one global community to curb carbon emissions, which cause global warming, were to be settled in Marrakesh.

Sarkozy urges European Union to impose strict duties on United States, if Donald Trump kept his promise and withdraw the country from the Agreement.

Former Independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City has asserted that USA mayors will lead the way in curbing American contributions to climate change, even if a skeptical President-elect Donald Trump reverses environmental regulations.

If Trump’s actions match his rhetoric in this area – and with Congress now controlled by Republicans this is still likely – it will mean the USA is no longer at the forefront of environmental regulation as it was under the Obama administration. “Climate change is happening, and fossil fuels are making it worse”, Greenpeace USA spokesman Travis Nichols said. He, along with President Obama, had been very active in getting the world to sign up to the Paris Agreement.

As with other issues ranging from abortion to immigration, Trump in recent years has been all over the map on climate change. “Climate change shouldn’t be a partisan issue”.

This Conference is significant as it takes place just days after the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change on the 4th of November.

The U.N. Development Programme report shows that staying under 1.5°C of warming would reduce by a full month the length of extreme heat waves each year for most tropical regions by mid-century, compared with 2°C.

The just completed conference on implementation of the Paris agreement in Marrakesh, Morocco, put the world’s dilemma on the subject under the spotlight.

“We call for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority”, reads the proclamation.

Through initiatives such as the Global Covenant of Mayors, the world’s local and regional governments are key to bridging the gap between governments’ climate commitments and the Paris Agreement which seeks to keep temperatures rising well below 2°C. “Significant work areas including climate finance were left unfinished but in the backdrop of Trump’s election, it is an important signal!”

From across the Atlantic, Donald Trump eclipsed a United Nations conference trying to preserve momentum on curtailing climate change amid fears the mogul will fragment the global effort and starve it of cash.

Trump’s election has dealt a blow to that confidence, but there is a way that the USA climate movement can help restore it – fight for individual U.S. states to defy the federal government and pledge to follow the goals of the Paris climate agreement. They’re in no position to do that to us, and that won’t happen, but I’m going to take a look at it.

The President-elect was heralded for changing his mind on global warming when he appeared to acknowledge that there was some connection between humanity and climate change.

The writer is a freelance environmental journalist based in Islamabad.

At the COP22 summit this week, French President Francois Hollande warned that inaction on climate change would be “disastrous for future generations and risky for peace”.