If Donald Trump were to leave the Paris Agreement, what signal would it send to the world's other top CO² emitters?
To discuss global warming Insiders caught up with British climate expert and Chief Executive of E3G Nick Mabey.
Sophie Claudet, Euronews Insiders:
“The US is one of the top CO² emitters. We know that US President-elect Donald Trump wants out of the Paris agreement. If he were to have his way, what signal would that send to China and India, other top CO² emitters in the world.”
Nick Mabey:
“I assume that Donald Trump will try and leave the Paris agreement, that will take him four years because of the structure of the agreement. He could try and move faster but I think he would find that very difficult to get through Congress.
Oil stocks soar after Trump victory, but coal is the real winner https://t.co/0ZeGmxMCX9pic.twitter.com/JuMdUsyGvo
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) November 10, 2016
Nick Mabey:
“I’ve talked to the Chinese, I’ve talked to people in India, and I think the world has changed since George W Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol. China and India know they need a stable climate in order to meet their own development goals, to protect their own people. And although it will slow down political momentum, those countries see it’s in their own interest to move forward.
Trump could do terrible damage to the Paris agreement – but climate action will survive. https://t.co/Q5fKPsckqj
— The Conversation (@ConversationEDU) November 11, 2016
Nick Mabey:
“The real issue is whether the American lack of action will slow down the pace of action globally so much that we cross some critical tipping points in the climate which [would] make things a lot worse, irreversibly.”
Sophie Claudet:
“Climate change is not only happening in far away lands, it is also happening right here in Europe. How does it manifest itself?”
Nick Mabey, British climate expert:
“There are four main ways it’s hitting us: firstly, increased flooding in the north of Europe, such as we saw in the Danube a few years ago. Extreme weather everywhere, the kind of storms that hit Genoa and the south of France last year.
“But perhaps the hardest are the increased droughts in southern Europe. The Mediterranean is warming at twice the rate as the rest of the world, and this affects both the southern European countries, but also of course, countries on the other side of the Mediterranean causing instability, social tensions and migration.
“Conservatives own climate change.
Conservatives own the consequences of climate change.
They own the increased dr…” https://t.co/6EOTfC00NA— William Knight (@_William_Knight) November 11, 2016
Sophie Claudet:
“Are we doing enough in the EU to slow down global warming?”
Nick Mabey:
“The EU is doing a lot. We are the best in the world at being efficient, at using renewable energy and having clean cars. But unfortunately the science of climate change keeps on pushing [moving] the goalposts, and to actually keep safe we have to do more.
“So Europe, in order to keep up with the latest targets we just agreed in Paris, is going to have to increase its targets both by 2020 and 2030. The good news is if we do that we will actually save money, because the cost of cutting emissions has dropped so radically.”
Sophie Claudet:
“Why are we in Europe still so reliant on coal?”
Nick Mabey:
“The real problem with coal in Europe is in Poland and Germany. The coal plants they have are not economic but they create lots of jobs and political support for the parties who are in power.
“Forget the smoke & mirrors from dying industry. Real climate action = leaving oil, coal and gas in the ground ” https://t.co/FyUUC0YfLe
— 350.org Europe (@350Europe) November 4, 2016
Nick Mabey:
“So the big issue we’ve got to deal with in Europe [in many ways], is finding a way for those workers who depend on coal and coal power stations for a livelihood to have a just transition to a new future. And that’s something the unions involved and lots of organisations like my own are working on at the moment.”
Live updates from our Insiders team
Finland on its way to become world's first country to ban #coal use in energy production https://t.co/mQD1z7qarl#cop22#climate#divestpic.twitter.com/hFtJ9VKTuZ
— 350.org Europe (@350Europe) November 7, 2016