It is difficult to keep up with Donald Trump’s changing views. President Trump no longer believes that global warming is a hoax invented by and for the Chinese. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, told CNN that Donald Trump now “believes the climate is changing and he believes pollutants are part of the equation”. Moreover, he knows “the US has to be responsible for it”.
Why, then, does Trump want to leave the Paris climate agreement? Apparently because he finds its conditions too onerous. This is strange, since each participating country sets its own goals, and meeting them is voluntary. There are no penalties for non-compliance.
During his election campaign, Mr Trump had said that climate change was a hoax and, since his announcement on Thursday, has avoided questions on the subject, as has White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
“Just because the US got out of a club doesn’t mean we aren’t going to care about the environment,” Ms Haley told CNN, adding that the terms of the Paris agreement, reached in 2015, were “too onerous”.
Scott Pruitt, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, said: “The world applauded when we joined Paris. And you know why? I think they applauded because they knew it would put this country at a disadvantage.”
Mr Trump said the agreement would cost the US $3tn (
Tags: global warming