Pulling out of the Paris Agreement and America's Clean Power Plan ...and promoting coal burning .... Thanks Trump

“THE Trump Administration is firmly committed to conserving our wonderful natural resources and beautiful natural habitats,” claims a new website which sets out the policy priorities of Donald Trump, America’s president-elect. Greens are not convinced. Mr Trump promised on the campaign trail to rip up the Paris Agreement on climate change, which aims to limit global warming to “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures. He wants to kill America’s Clean Power Plan, which would regulate emissions from power plants. And he would promote coal-burning once more. Can America’s next president keep his campaign promises?
The Paris Agreement came into effect on November 4th, less than a year after more than 190 countries adopted it in December 2015. Barack Obama committed America to the plan using his executive authority, which gives Mr Trump the power to abandon it without seeking congressional approval. The process to withdraw, as mandated by international law, would take at least four years. But the way the agreement is structured means that while each country is obliged to curb warming, they maintain authority over how to do so. Mr Trump could therefore wilfully ignore America’s obligations to cut emissions—although it is more than halfway to meeting its own target of cutting emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025 it is widely expected to miss the mark.

Alternatively, he could withdraw America from the framework UN convention under which the Paris Agreement appeared. This would only take a year. But America joined the convention more than two decades ago, under George H.W. Bush. Pulling out would be an astounding change and set a poor example for other countries. Even if Mr Trump struggles to free America from its Paris committments, further progress on cutting emissions as required by the deal will become very difficult. Whomever Mr Trump nominates to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court's bench, it is likely the new justice will vote to scrap the Clean Power Plan, which is already on hold pending legal action.
Mr Trump’s love of coal, however, may be tempered by market forces. A glut of fossil fuels means that production of the black stuff in America has declined by almost a quarter since the highs of 2008. The cost of solar and wind power, and of the storage needed to smooth out their variations, is dropping. It will continue to do so. Moreover, despite wanting to end “the war on coal” Mr Trump also needs to care for America’s air and water quality. The bulk of the population supports such protection. Nor will America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) be rendered instantly toothless by a Trump administration. Acts passed decades ago to protect air and water are enforced by the agency. While its new staff will contain those who deny global warming, its mandate will remain the same. Under previous presidents with little regard for the climate, the EPA was sued more frequently by green groups for doing too little to protect the environment. That could happen again. Yet lawsuits of any kind pose a huge problem given the pace of global warming: 2016 is, so far, the hottest year ever recorded. Yet the greatest crisis from climate change will emerge only long after President Trump has left office.
We need to find a way to make him bend to the will of the people and to scientific proof. He needs to tour the artic to watch drowning and starving bears and follow that up with a tour of central Africa, where there has been a drought for 20+ years and little or no food. He has never gone hungry in his life. I don't think the word starvation is in his vocabulary. He seems to have his own agenda and doesn't care about much else.