AP, United Nations :
The U.N.’s new envoy for climate action, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said Monday that President Donald Trump can become “a great leader” if he changes his mind about global warming and keeps the United States in the Paris climate agreement.
The billionaire media mogul expressed hope that Trump will listen to his advisers, look at the data on climate change, and support the 2015 Paris accord aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Bloomberg spoke during a ceremony at which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave him the new title of U.N. special envoy for climate action, handing him the job of spurring international action to help curb global warming.
A longtime activist for clean energy and a green economy, Bloomberg was appointed U.N. special envoy on cities and climate change by then U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in January 2014. Since then, he has been traveling around the United States and the world campaigning for a reduction in carbon emissions.
Guterres announced that Bloomberg will help support a U.N. Climate Summit that he is planning at U.N. headquarters in 2019 to mobilize more ambitious action and start implementing the Paris climate agreement now.
Countries agreed in the Paris accord to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and do their best to keep it below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with pre-industrial times. But the agreement starts after 2020 – and at U.N. climate talks in November over 170 countries stressed the importance of implementing ambitious climate actions before 2020. Trump announced last June that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris agreement, fulfilling a campaign pledge to quit the world’s chief effort to slow planetary warming.
He framed his decision as “a reassertion of America’s sovereignty” and argued that the agreement had disadvantaged the U.S. “to the exclusive benefit of other countries,” leaving American businesses and taxpayers to absorb the cost.
Under terms of the agreement, the U.S. cannot officially pull out until 2020.
Bloomberg has urged world leaders not to follow Trump, and has pledged to save the Paris agreement.
The U.N.’s new envoy for climate action, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said Monday that President Donald Trump can become “a great leader” if he changes his mind about global warming and keeps the United States in the Paris climate agreement.
The billionaire media mogul expressed hope that Trump will listen to his advisers, look at the data on climate change, and support the 2015 Paris accord aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Bloomberg spoke during a ceremony at which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave him the new title of U.N. special envoy for climate action, handing him the job of spurring international action to help curb global warming.
A longtime activist for clean energy and a green economy, Bloomberg was appointed U.N. special envoy on cities and climate change by then U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in January 2014. Since then, he has been traveling around the United States and the world campaigning for a reduction in carbon emissions.
Guterres announced that Bloomberg will help support a U.N. Climate Summit that he is planning at U.N. headquarters in 2019 to mobilize more ambitious action and start implementing the Paris climate agreement now.
Countries agreed in the Paris accord to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and do their best to keep it below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with pre-industrial times. But the agreement starts after 2020 – and at U.N. climate talks in November over 170 countries stressed the importance of implementing ambitious climate actions before 2020. Trump announced last June that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris agreement, fulfilling a campaign pledge to quit the world’s chief effort to slow planetary warming.
He framed his decision as “a reassertion of America’s sovereignty” and argued that the agreement had disadvantaged the U.S. “to the exclusive benefit of other countries,” leaving American businesses and taxpayers to absorb the cost.
Under terms of the agreement, the U.S. cannot officially pull out until 2020.
Bloomberg has urged world leaders not to follow Trump, and has pledged to save the Paris agreement.
