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Exit has 'galvanized' US support behind Paris accord; Bloomberg speaks out
by Staff Writers
Montreal (AFP) June 5, 2017


Top career US diplomat in China embassy steps down
Beijing (AFP) June 6, 2017 - The top career diplomat at the US embassy in China has stepped down, an American official in Beijing confirmed Tuesday, amid suggestions that he opposes President Donald Trump's climate policy.

Embassy charge d'affaires David Rank was a 27-year veteran State Department officer appointed to serve in Beijing in January last year.

"Mr Rank made a personal decision. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department," US embassy spokeswoman Mary Beth Polley told AFP.

Polley said the embassy informed China's foreign affairs ministry on Monday that Jonathan Fritz would be serving as charge d'affaires.

She declined to comment on when a permanent replacement for Rank would be announced.

Trump's choice as the new ambassador to China, former Iowa governor Terry Branstad, has yet to arrive in the country.

News of Rank's resignation was broken on Twitter by veteran China reporter John Pomfret, an editor at the SupChina news site, formerly of the Washington Post.

According to Pomfret, Rank stepped down because he "could not back Trump on climate" and had been dismayed by the president's decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

Pomfret added Rank had "called a town hall meeting" at the embassy "to say he could not deliver a demarche (initiative)" to China over US withdrawal from the Paris agreement.

President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Accord has unwittingly "galvanized support" for American action to limit global warming, Canada's environment minister said Monday.

In an interview with AFP, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna pointed to strong US state, local and corporate rebukes of Trump's move and vows to press ahead without him to slash carbon emissions.

"All these discussions about whether the administration would stay or leave the Paris Accord," she said, "galvanized support for the agreement."

The minister said Canada's government, which under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau championed the Paris accord, was obviously "extremely disappointed" with the US decision to withdraw.

But, she added, "We were encouraged by the reactions in the United States of all sorts of people."

"State governors have risen, mayors have risen. And you have seen the companies. For the first time, (investment bank) Goldman Sachs' president wrote a tweet expressing his disappointment at the US policy and saying that it believes in the Paris agreement," she highlighted.

"There is a real opportunity for Canada to work with all these other actors... to step up action on climate," she said.

McKenna also dismissed Trump's view that exiting the Paris accord would breathe new life into traditional sectors like auto manufacturing, steel and coal mining.

On the latter, she commented: "The United States will not return to coal because natural gas costs so much less and it would make no sense."

Bloomberg leads mass coalition declaring support for Paris climate deal
New York (AFP) June 5, 2017 - Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg led nearly 1,000 business and government officials declaring they would honor the Paris climate accord on Monday, days after US President Donald Trump announced a US exit from the 190-plus nation pact.

Experts said the groundswell of support from the private sector, big states such as New York and California, and state and local leaders for the voluntary emissions-curbing commitments in the 2015 deal could even help the United States reach its goals earlier than planned.

"Today, on behalf of an unprecedented collection of US cities, states, businesses and other organizations, I am communicating to the United Nations and the global community that American society remains committed to achieving the emission reductions we pledged to make in Paris in 2015," Bloomberg said in a statement.

"I am confident the broad array of leaders and organizations that have signed today's declaration, and many others that will join in the days to come, will work together to reduce US carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2025, just as we had pledged in Paris."

Big names like Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Levi Strauss and Tiffany are in the group, called "We Are Still In," along with more than 100 mayors and governors and a range of colleges and universities.

A full list of the signatories is available at wearestillin.org.

- A 'grave mistake' -

The group called Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the climate accord "a grave mistake that endangers the American public and hurts America's economic security and diplomatic reputation."

"In the absence of leadership from Washington, states, cities, colleges and universities and businesses representing a sizeable percentage of the US economy will pursue ambitious climate goals," it said in a statement.

At least 211 mayors have adopted the Paris goals for their own cities since Trump's announcement on Thursday, and at least 17 governors have released individual statements saying they stand by the Paris deal, agreed in late 2015 by every country in the world except Syria and Nicaragua.

Bloomberg, a billionaire climate advocate, also met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to tell him the American people intend to uphold the pact.

Bloomberg has also pledged to muster $15 million for the United Nations' climate body, substituting for US funding likely to be axed by Trump.

Bloomberg, 75, was mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013.

Forbes magazine estimates him to be the world's eighth-richest person.

- Massive response -

Although Bloomberg's initiative is not the only pushback against Trump's move, it is the most prominent, said Steve Cohen, executive director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

"You are seeing a massive response to Trump's decision," he said, noting the United States has already begun to turn away from coal in favor of natural gas and renewable forms of energy.

"I think the US will exceed the Paris agreement targets," he added.

Darren Rosenblum, law professor at Pace University in New York, says the business community is coming together to address the most direct threat posed by a US pullout -- loss of competitiveness as the rest of the world barrels toward a greener economy.

"I do think that in the end, the effect is a positive one," he said.

"It starts to put in place the mechanisms for US companies and local governments to follow international norms."

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Trump wants to 'stay engaged' on climate: Tillerson
Sydney (AFP) June 5, 2017
US President Donald Trump wants to stay engaged on climate change and has not abandoned the issue, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday, days after Trump announced he was quitting the Paris accord. Trump's decision, which has been roundly denounced by the international community, was based on his belief that it "did not serve the American people", Tillerson said in Sydney. "It d ... read more

Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation


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