International inexperienced vitality push more likely to proceed regardless of Trump local weather retreat: UN
By Elodie LE MAOU
Davos, Switzerland (AFP) Jan 22, 2025
Donald Trump’s choice to withdraw the US from the Paris local weather settlement mustn’t gradual the worldwide momentum in the direction of renewable vitality investments that the deal created, the UN stated Wednesday.
“I imagine that many international locations will proceed transferring within the route of inexperienced vitality,” stated Celeste Saulo, head of the United Nations’ World Meteorological Group climate and local weather company.
As he took workplace on Monday, President Trump introduced the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris accord adopted by 195 events to curb greenhouse gasoline emissions driving local weather change.
Critics warn that the transfer undermines international cooperation on decreasing fossil gas use and will weaken different international locations’ commitments to local weather motion.
However WMO chief Saulo stated in a joint interview with AFP and Reuters she didn’t imagine the US exit would gradual what are turning out to be worthwhile investments in inexperienced vitality.
The shift in the direction of renewable vitality sources “is ongoing and… brings wealth to the international locations”, she stated on the sidelines of the World Financial Discussion board within the Swiss ski resort city of Davos.
“That won’t change.”
She didn’t “anticipate folks to maneuver away from investments which are actually very worthwhile and on the identical time are inexperienced initiatives.
“I believe that the transfer and the momentum that began with the Paris Settlement is there.”
– Early warnings –
Trump beforehand withdrew the US from the Paris accord in 2017, throughout his first time period, solely to see former president Joe Biden re-enter when he took workplace in 2021.
Monday’s announcement, on Trump’s first day again in energy, signalled that the US would formally exit in a single yr, below the accord’s guidelines.
It got here as international common temperatures already hit document highs in 2024, whereas over the previous two years they quickly surpassed a vital 1.5 levels Celsius warming threshold for the primary time.
Requested about Trump’s transfer, Saulo stated it was “a choice of a sovereign nation, and we have to settle for that”.
The main target for the WMO now, she stated, could be on “persevering with the… sturdy collaboration and engagement of the US” with the company.
Particularly, the work in the direction of establishing early warning techniques for excessive climate occasions ought to “not be affected”, she stated.
With excessive climate occasions on the rise, the UN has stated it needs to see each individual on Earth protected by early warning techniques by 2027 for floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms.
Saulo highlighted the shut cooperation between the WMO and the US Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA’S work was “fairly impactful worldwide”, she confused.
“I am positive that that may proceed alongside the identical traces, as a result of they’re saving lives,” together with utilizing local weather data to subject early warnings for looming disasters.
“I might say that the US is without doubt one of the international locations that makes use of most local weather data for choice making,” she stated.
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