Anger over Trump support for coal at UN climate talks

[nitpicker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41859283

Anger over Trump support for coal at UN climate talks

By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, Bonn

1 hour ago

From the section Science & Environment

Plans by the Trump administration to promote coal as a solution to climate change at a major UN meeting have angered environmentalists. An adviser to the president is expected to take part in a pro-coal presentation in Bonn next week. Separately, a group of governors will say that the US is still committed to climate action despite Mr Trump's rejection of the Paris agreement.

The talks begin on Monday and aim to flesh out the rules for the Paris pact. This meeting, officially known as COP23, will be the first full gathering of climate negotiators since President Trump vowed to take the US out of the Paris treaty. However under the rules, the US cannot leave the agreement until 2020 so they will be sending a team of negotiators to this meeting. However the official US delegation, mainly career civil servants, may well be overshadowed by other groups with very different visions for how the US should combat climate change.

According to reports, members of the Trump administration, will lend their support to an event to promote fossil fuels and nuclear power as solutions to climate change. Speakers from coal giant Peabody Energy, among others, will make a presentation to highlight the role that coal and other fuels can play in curbing the impacts of rising temperatures. A White House spokesman said in a statement that the discussion aims to build on the administration's efforts to promote fossil fuels at the G20 meeting this year.
(snip)

The prospect of fossil fuel industries making their case at this meeting has angered some who will attending. "Fossil fuels having any role in tackling climate change is beyond absurd. It is dangerous," said Andrew Norton, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development.
(snip)

Environmentalists point to the contradiction of the Trump administration championing fossil fuels while an authoritative National Climate Assessment report, released on the eve of COP23, is clear that CO2 from these fuels is the key cause of climate change. The report says "that it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence."

Other groups, opposed to the Trump perspective, will also be paying for a large pavilion at the talks. Delegations of US governors, mayors and business people, under the We Are Still In coalition umbrella, will be in Bonn to tell negotiators that below the Federal level, much of America still supports the Paris Agreement.
(snip)

Around 20,000 delegates and visitors will attend the meeting over two weeks.

[get the red out]

1. He is setting us back

Besides environmental concerns, he is working to set us way back in energy technology.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. While Trump's promotion is counterproductive, it's still only promotion.

Others don't have to adopt his position. All they have to do is wait for impeachment, resignation, or 2020 for a new policy from this country.

[leftinalabama]

3. Rick Perry

Rick Perry will be there to provide comedic relief. He will tell them that fossil fuels like coal help prevent rape.