China affirms climate pledge after Trump rolls back rules

It spurs infrastructure spending and creates jobs, two things Trump said he wants to prioritize. This regulation, which many argue is one of the most expensive in American history, was key to Obama’s climate legacy and, indeed, the President’s Executive Order issued this week does kill the CPP.

Trump, who doubts that greenhouse gases from fossil fuels are warming the planet, began undoing former President Barack Obama’s policies to slow global warming this week in a shift to favour the USA coal industry.

This stance from President Trump’s appointee reflects an administration-wide disregard for climate change and caters to the bottom line of billionaire polluters, rather than protecting our public health. By contrast, the wind power industry employed 88,000 Americans at the start of 2016, and wind power technician is now the fastest growing profession in the nation. “You can’t constrain greenhouse gases released in the United States to stay in the USA, we’re all going to suffer from them”, he added. “Trump’s false promise that he can bring back coal is really exposed as so much coal dust and mirrors by this executive order, since utilities will continue to use natural gas instead of coal”. That is going to end by the signing of this executive order.

President Trump has argued that reducing the EPA and cutting back on environmental and clean air regulations will help the USA coal and oil industries and revive the US economy.

“It is very encouraging to hear a US President talk positively about the role of clean coal technology”, said Benjamin Sporton, CEO of the World Coal Association in London.

With the stroke of a pen, President Trump has written off both the biggest economic development opportunity of the twenty-first century, and the security of today’s young people, future generations and the other species inhabiting this planet.

Section 4 of the Order directs the Environmental Protection Agency to review and revise the “New Source Performance Standards” contained in its far-reaching “Quad O” regulation.

Indeed, numerous coal-fired electricity generators closed during Obama’s term in office, including the former American Electric Power Kammer Plant in Marshall County.

China is a signatory to the Paris accord, the first universal action plan for curbing global warming.

Trump claims that cutting back on the regulations will stimulate industry and boost job growth.

Critics have described the Obama-era plan as an overreach by the EPA that exceeds the original intent of the Clean Air Act.

The plan called for reducing power plant emissions by 2030 by about 32 per cent from 2005 levels. It set targets for each state to reach. China plans to invest $360 billion in renewable energy over the next four years, turning away from the coal-fueled energy system that has choked its cities’ skies. Politico reports that during a meeting on Tuesday, “a supervisor at the Energy Department’s worldwide climate office told staff.not to use the phrases “climate change”, “emissions reduction” or “Paris Agreement” in written memos, briefings or other written communication”.

Many nations reacted to Trump’s plan with dismay and defiance, saying a vast investment shift from fossil fuels to clean energy such as wind and solar power is underway with benefits ranging from less air pollution to more jobs.

For now, at least, there are no signs that Trump’s open contempt for the Paris Agreement – which, as a candidate, he pledged to “cancel” – has caused defections from the ranks.

At the beginning of this year, I sent a letter to then President-elect Trump urging him to work with Congress and use his executive authority to provide regulatory relief to Kentucky coal miners and their families.

The editorial pointed out China and the United States are the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitters, but said China is still in the process of developing while America is a superpower with the technological edge to slash emissions.

At home, should the Clean Power Plan expire, states that have been reticent to advance a clean energy agenda will no longer be required to plan for emissions reductions.