NAN-F-61
Climate
Brussels, May 3, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) EU officials are scrambling to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump not to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord after his advisers warned of legal problems if Washington stayed in but lowered its commitments.
The EU sources said on Wednesday that European ministers and EU officials have been lobbying senior White House staff after hearing Trump was leaning heavily towards exiting the global pact.
This according to the report was because of the legal problems that could arise if Washington revised its climate commitments downward.
Trump is expected to announce a decision as early as next week along with other energy policy changes, including ordering opening up LNG exports and Arctic drilling.
“If the biggest economy in the world dumps the whole thing, we all have to worry.
“We are reaching out at all possible levels to try to explain why they do not need to leave the Paris agreement”, one EU source told Reuters.
Four U.S. sources said opponents of the 2015 accord to cap greenhouse gas emissions had won the upper hand in recent days about whether to pull out or remain in the accord with a reduced commitment.
Senior administration officials including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, White House Counsel Donald McGahn and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt argued Washington risked legal challenges if it lowered its climate goals while remaining a party to the deal.
The sources said White House lawyers had argued in a memo recently that changing the U.S. target, known as the Nationally Determined Contribution, could trigger these complications.
A White House spokesperson said that a decision had not yet been made and she gave no further details.
Trump said at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday that he would announce a “big decision” on the Paris agreement within two weeks.
EU Climate Commissioner Miguel Canete, who has telephoned White House officials to press them on the climate issue, said “there is room for the new U.S. administration to chart its own path.”
“We all continue to hope the U.S. will find a way to remain within the Paris Agreement,” he told reporters after a meeting with Iran’s environment minister. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Idahosa Asowata