Trump
'will definitely pull out of Paris climate change deal'
Warning
comes from the former head of the US President's transition team at
the Environmental Protection Agency
Tom Batchelor 2
hours ago
A former climate
change adviser to Donald Trump has said the US President will pull
America out of the landmark Paris agreement and an executive order on
the issue could come within “days”.
Myron Ebell, who
took charge of Mr Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
transition team, said the President was determined to undo policies
pushed by Barack Obama to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.
He said the US would
"clearly change its course on climate policy" under the new
administration and claimed Mr Trump was "pretty clear that the
problem or the crisis has been overblown and overstated".
“I expect Donald
Trump to be very assiduous in keeping his promises, despite all of
the flack he is going to get from his opponents,” he told a
briefing in London.
“He could do it by
executive order tomorrow, or he could wait and do it as part of a
larger package. There are multiple ways and I have no idea of the
timing.”
Mr Ebell, a
long-standing climate sceptic, was employed by the Trump team last
September to review the EPA and worked for the Republican billionaire
until his inauguration on 20 January.
Mr Trump, who has
previously called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese,
promised a raft of policies during his campaign including to undo
Obama’s climate action plan and defund UN climate change work.
The Paris agreement,
successor to the Kyoto Protocols, aims to "stabilise greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent
dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".
In November, two
weeks after his election victory, Mr Trump said he had an "open
mind" on the climate deal, which was drafted at the end of 2015
and signed on the 22 April 2016.
The agreement has
194 signatories, including the US.
Mr Ebell, who has
criticised the "alarmist agenda" of the climate change
lobby, said any efforts by Mr Trump's new Secretary of State to keep
the US in the Paris deal would be futile.
Rex Tillerson, a
former ExxonMobil chief executive, acknowledged the existence of
climate change during his recent Senate hearing.
rex-tillerson-2.jpg
Secretary of
State-designate Rex Tillerson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington
DC at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee (AP)
Asked about the
Paris deal, he said: "I think it’s 190 countries have signed
on. We’re better served by being at that table than by leaving that
table.”
However, speaking on
Monday afternoon at an event hosted by the Global Warming Policy
Foundation, which itself is accused of denying the damaging impact of
climate change, Mr Ebell responded: "His [Mr Trump's] mandate is
pretty clear, and he knows who he got it from. If Rex Tillerson
disagrees with the President, who is going to win that debate?
"Well I don't
know but the President was elected and Rex Tillerson was appointed by
the President, so I would guess that the President would be the
odds-on favourite to win any disagreement over climate policy."
Mr Ebell's assertion
appears to contradict Mr Trump's approach to other policy areas -
specifically torture - where the President has said the final say
will be given to his cabinet picks, notably the secretary of defence
James Mattis.
Asked last year
about the link between humans and climate change, Mr Trump said there
was “some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much”.
The New York
property tycoon has also said he would look “very closely” at
whether to remain a signatory of the Paris agreement.
Friends of the
Earth’s director of campaigns, Simon Rayner, said pulling the US
out of the Paris climate treaty "would be an act of utter
contempt from Donald Trump towards the international community.
“Climate change is
one of the biggest challenges the whole planet faces – and one the
U.S must play its fair share in tackling.
“The warning
lights are flashing: Theresa May must urgently stand up to Donald
Trump and an environment and political agenda that is already causing
huge harm.”
Mr Ebell admitted he
had not met Mr Trump and said he was appointed last August by a
former member of his inner circle, New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie.
The self-described
"enemy of climate change alarmism", who disputes the
negative impact of carbon dioxide on the environment, added: "There
hasn't been much warming for the last 20 years, or statistically no
warming for the last 20 years, but it is going to happen because we
keep pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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