Trump hopefully will change his mind about climate: Bloomberg

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg said Monday he hopes President Donald Trump will change his mind about climate change, as he took on the role of UN special envoy for climate action.

The former New York mayor will be tasked with supporting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' plan to host a major summit next year to take stock of progress in implementing the Paris climate agreement.

Trump last year stunned the world by announcing plans to pull the United States out of the Paris accord, signed by nearly 200 countries and parties. The US president is not expected to attend the 2019 summit.

"My hope is that President Trump listens to his advisers and looks at the data and changes his mind," Bloomberg told reporters as he met with Guterres to discuss his mission.

"If that's the case, that shows a great leader, who, when facts change and they recognize something different they are not bound to what they did before. They are willing to change.

"This president does change his views," added Bloomberg. "Generally, it's from one day to the next, but over a longer period of time, hopefully he will."

Bloomberg said he spoke to Trump once and that "he certainly knows my views on climate change", adding that his staff remained in touch with the US administration.

The UN envoy will be traveling to Cape Town this week as the South African city faces a crisis over its dwindling water supply due to drought and sparse rain.

Guterres praised Bloomberg as a "true leader" on climate which he described as "the defining question of our time".

Under the terms of the Paris agreement, the United States can formally give notice that it plans to withdraw in 2019, three years after the accord came into force.

The withdrawal would become effective a year later, in 2020.

Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Health savings outweigh costs of limiting global warming: study
Paris (AFP) March 2, 2018
The estimated cost of measures to limit Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions can be more than offset by reductions in deaths and disease from air pollution, researchers said on Saturday. It would cost $22.1 trillion (17.9 trillion euros) to $41.6 trillion between 2020 and 2050 for the world to hold average global warming under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a team projected in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. For the lower, aspirational limit of 1.5 C, the cost would be betw ... read more