AFP, Marrakesh :
The United States will likely fail to meet its pledges under the landmark Paris climate pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, analysts said Thursday on the margin of UN climate talks.
Even if president-elect Donald Trump does not reverse policies already put in place by Barack Obama-and that is a big ‘if’-US emissions of heat-trapping gases would remain stable over the next 15 years, badly missing the target, the experts said in a report.
“With no additional policies, emissions in the US will be flat until 2030,” said Niklas Hohne, director of the New Climate Institute in Cologne, Germany and co-author of the analysis.
Under the Paris Agreement, which went into force last week, the United States committed to slash its carbon pollution by 26-28 percent, as measured against a 2005 benchmark.
If Trump carries out threats to unwind the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, these emissions could be even higher, Hohne said. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton vowed to continue Obama’s policies, and would have had at least a chance of meeting the Paris goals through executive action, experts say.
It is highly uncertain whether Obama’s long-term objective of slashing economy-wide emission 80 per cent by mid-century will be maintained by the new administration. Trump has described global warming as a “hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese government, and has said at different times that he would “renegotiate” or “cancel” the 196-nation deal.
The United States will likely fail to meet its pledges under the landmark Paris climate pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, analysts said Thursday on the margin of UN climate talks.
Even if president-elect Donald Trump does not reverse policies already put in place by Barack Obama-and that is a big ‘if’-US emissions of heat-trapping gases would remain stable over the next 15 years, badly missing the target, the experts said in a report.
“With no additional policies, emissions in the US will be flat until 2030,” said Niklas Hohne, director of the New Climate Institute in Cologne, Germany and co-author of the analysis.
Under the Paris Agreement, which went into force last week, the United States committed to slash its carbon pollution by 26-28 percent, as measured against a 2005 benchmark.
If Trump carries out threats to unwind the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, these emissions could be even higher, Hohne said. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton vowed to continue Obama’s policies, and would have had at least a chance of meeting the Paris goals through executive action, experts say.
It is highly uncertain whether Obama’s long-term objective of slashing economy-wide emission 80 per cent by mid-century will be maintained by the new administration. Trump has described global warming as a “hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese government, and has said at different times that he would “renegotiate” or “cancel” the 196-nation deal.
