New UN Climate Chief Espinosa at Odds with Trump Alister Doyle - Reuters
go to original May 21, 2016

Noam Chomsky on Donald Trump and Climate Change Denialism (PeoplePowerTelevision)

The United Nations' incoming climate chief said she will push for rapid action under a U.N. accord to slow global warming and expressed hopes that U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will drop calls for a renegotiation if elected.

Mexico's Patricia Espinosa, a former foreign minister appointed on Wednesday to head the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat from July, urged all governments swiftly to ratify the 195-nation accord hammered out in Paris in December.

She told Reuters that "it's not impossible" that the agreement, seeking to transform the global economy away from fossil fuels this century, could enter into force as early as this year, giving it strength in international law.

Espinosa is at odds with Trump, who is sceptical that man-made emissions cause climate change. He told Reuters on Tuesday that he was "not a big fan" of the Paris accord and that "at a minimum I will be renegotiating those agreements."

Asked about Trump's threat, Espinosa said the Paris deal was a hard-won compromise by more than 190 nations. "It would not be easy for anybody to just say 'I want to renegotiate this'," she said.

Nations who agreed in Paris range from top greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States, small island nations fearful of rising sea levels and OPEC members who depend on income from oil.

Read the rest at RigZone

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