By AFP
November 15, 2024
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Argentine President Javier Milei (C) attended a gala put on by US President-elect Donald Trump (2nd from right), alongside Elon Musk (2nd from left) - Copyright Argentinian Presidency/AFP Handout
Sonia AVALOS
Argentina’s abrupt snub of COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan has raised alarm that President Javier Milei — an ally to US President-elect Donald Trump — could be looking at pulling out of the Paris accord.
Such a move would align Milei’s climate change skepticism with the position held by Trump — and deal a blow to the 2015 international agreement that aims to curb global warming.
“If Milei’s government decides to exit the Paris Agreement, we would be faced with huge legal and constitutional implications,” said Maximiliano Ferraro, an Argentine lawmaker with the opposition Civic Coalition.
Already, Milei — a populist who has taken radical measures to cut inflation at home — has downgraded his environment ministry to a sub-secretariat and eliminated a fund for the protection of native forests.
Argentina’s delegation expected at the COP29, the UN climate talks happening in Azerbaijan this week, suddenly pulled out, an environment ministry source confirmed, without giving details behind the decision.
Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein told The Washington Post that “we are reevaluating our strategy on all climate-change-related issues” but added that Buenos Aires had not made a decision at this time to leave the Paris accord.
On Thursday, Milei attended a gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, alongside the world’s richest man Elon Musk. At the event, Milei hailed Trump’s “greatest political comeback in history.”
Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, during his first time as president.
Current US President Joe Biden brought his country back into it in 2021, but Trump has vowed to reverse that order when he takes over the White House in January.
On Monday and Tuesday, Biden and Milei will attend a G20 summit in Brazil that will discuss international efforts to limit climate change, but the US leader is seen as a lame duck leader at the gathering.
– ‘Bad signal’ –
Greenpeace Argentina said the country’s withdrawal from the Azerbaijan talks was a “bad signal.”
Ferraro, the opposition lawmaker, said if an exit from the Paris Agreement followed, “we would be entering a foggy path of isolation.”
Milei has a record of putting environmental considerations well below economic ones.
In June, he stated: “Nature must serve humans and their wellbeing, not the other way around.”
He added that “the main environmental problem we have is extreme poverty, and that is only solved if we use our resources.”
Oscar Soria, head of The Common Initiative, a New York-based group campaigning for financial reform to promote biodiversity, told AFP “there is a growing concern about the possibility that Argentina exits the Paris Agreement.”
But he pointed out that such a move “cannot be done by a simple decree” — it would require approval by the Argentine Congress.
Argentina ratified the Paris accord in 2016, meaning any change would enter constitutional territory.
It would also run counter to “solid legislation on climate action” in the country, Soria said.
“If he goes there, we are ready for a legal battle.”
Soria added that “with or without Argentina, global climate action will continue. That was shown in the United States when Donald Trump took the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2017. A lot of extreme-right leaders have underestimated the Paris Agreement.”
Guillermo Folguera, a biologist at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, said there was hope that NGOs could curb government policies that look at the environment “only as a way to generate assets and not as a space for life.”
Ferraro suggested that Milei’s moves could be a way to ingratiate himself with Trump.
“I wonder if it’s just a show put on by President Milei to offer this up as a sacrificial ritual in his get-together with US President-elect Donald Trump?”
Argentine President Javier Milei (C) attended a gala put on by US President-elect Donald Trump (2nd from right), alongside Elon Musk (2nd from left) - Copyright Argentinian Presidency/AFP Handout
Sonia AVALOS
Argentina’s abrupt snub of COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan has raised alarm that President Javier Milei — an ally to US President-elect Donald Trump — could be looking at pulling out of the Paris accord.
Such a move would align Milei’s climate change skepticism with the position held by Trump — and deal a blow to the 2015 international agreement that aims to curb global warming.
“If Milei’s government decides to exit the Paris Agreement, we would be faced with huge legal and constitutional implications,” said Maximiliano Ferraro, an Argentine lawmaker with the opposition Civic Coalition.
Already, Milei — a populist who has taken radical measures to cut inflation at home — has downgraded his environment ministry to a sub-secretariat and eliminated a fund for the protection of native forests.
Argentina’s delegation expected at the COP29, the UN climate talks happening in Azerbaijan this week, suddenly pulled out, an environment ministry source confirmed, without giving details behind the decision.
Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein told The Washington Post that “we are reevaluating our strategy on all climate-change-related issues” but added that Buenos Aires had not made a decision at this time to leave the Paris accord.
On Thursday, Milei attended a gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, alongside the world’s richest man Elon Musk. At the event, Milei hailed Trump’s “greatest political comeback in history.”
Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, during his first time as president.
Current US President Joe Biden brought his country back into it in 2021, but Trump has vowed to reverse that order when he takes over the White House in January.
On Monday and Tuesday, Biden and Milei will attend a G20 summit in Brazil that will discuss international efforts to limit climate change, but the US leader is seen as a lame duck leader at the gathering.
– ‘Bad signal’ –
Greenpeace Argentina said the country’s withdrawal from the Azerbaijan talks was a “bad signal.”
Ferraro, the opposition lawmaker, said if an exit from the Paris Agreement followed, “we would be entering a foggy path of isolation.”
Milei has a record of putting environmental considerations well below economic ones.
In June, he stated: “Nature must serve humans and their wellbeing, not the other way around.”
He added that “the main environmental problem we have is extreme poverty, and that is only solved if we use our resources.”
Oscar Soria, head of The Common Initiative, a New York-based group campaigning for financial reform to promote biodiversity, told AFP “there is a growing concern about the possibility that Argentina exits the Paris Agreement.”
But he pointed out that such a move “cannot be done by a simple decree” — it would require approval by the Argentine Congress.
Argentina ratified the Paris accord in 2016, meaning any change would enter constitutional territory.
It would also run counter to “solid legislation on climate action” in the country, Soria said.
“If he goes there, we are ready for a legal battle.”
Soria added that “with or without Argentina, global climate action will continue. That was shown in the United States when Donald Trump took the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2017. A lot of extreme-right leaders have underestimated the Paris Agreement.”
Guillermo Folguera, a biologist at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, said there was hope that NGOs could curb government policies that look at the environment “only as a way to generate assets and not as a space for life.”
Ferraro suggested that Milei’s moves could be a way to ingratiate himself with Trump.
“I wonder if it’s just a show put on by President Milei to offer this up as a sacrificial ritual in his get-together with US President-elect Donald Trump?”
Trump’s climate impact ‘recoverable’: researchers
By AFP
November 14, 2024
Donald Trump is expected to retreat from international efforts to limit global warming - Copyright AFP/File Brendan Smialowski
Kelly MACNAMARA
US president-elect Donald Trump’s expected climate rollbacks will likely have a “small” impact on global warming, as long as other countries resist the temptation to slacken their own carbon-cutting efforts, new research found Thursday.
Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has pledged to reverse the green policies of President Joe Biden and could pull the United States out of international efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.
This year is almost certain to be the hottest on record, with rising temperatures unleashing a deadly torrent of floods, heatwaves and storms across the world.
In a new analysis of countries’ climate plans, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) project said Trump’s potential retreat from the green transition could increase global temperatures by around 0.04C by the end of the century.
Bill Hare of Climate Analytics, one of the groups behind the tracker, said the effect could be “really quite small”.
“The damage it would do emission-wise to global climate action, if just confined to the United States and over four to five years, is probably recoverable,” he said.
But he said the impact could be significantly greater if other countries use shrinking ambitions from the US, the world’s second biggest emitter, as an excuse to slow walk their own climate actions.
That will become clear in the coming weeks and months, with nations expected to submit new and improved emissions-reduction commitments to the United Nations by February.
Hare said that a “fundamental” question will be the reaction of China, the biggest greenhouse gas emitter.
– ‘Flat-lined’ –
The CAT project calculated that the current crop of climate promises would see the world warm 2.6C by century’s end, with very little change in the outlook in the past three years suggesting that government action has “flat-lined”.
In a separate report released Thursday, CAT looked at the plans of the biggest greenhouse gas polluters.
The US, which accounts for the largest share of historical greenhouse gas pollution, has said it will cut emissions from all sectors in half by 2030 from 2005 levels.
CAT said US emissions would need to drop 65 percent this decade and 80 percent by 2035 to align with the 1.5C limit.
China, which has yet to outline a pledge covering emissions from all sectors, would need to slash carbon pollution 66 percent by 2030 from 2023 levels and 78 percent by 2035.
“If one looks at the rapid drop in emissions needed, it is reasonable to ask: How could this be possible?” Hare said of the China projections.
“The short answer is it’s mainly because we can decarbonise the power sector nearly everywhere, quite quickly. And the first thing to do is to get out of coal.”
The report comes after research published on Wednesday found that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again this year to a new record, meaning the cuts needed in the future are even sharper if the world is to meet its warming target.
Emissions of CO2 from coal, which account for 41 percent of the global total from fossil fuels, ticked up 0.2 percent this year, according to the projections by the Global Carbon Project, with decreases in the US and European Union and increases in China, India and the rest of the world.
By AFP
November 14, 2024
Donald Trump is expected to retreat from international efforts to limit global warming - Copyright AFP/File Brendan Smialowski
Kelly MACNAMARA
US president-elect Donald Trump’s expected climate rollbacks will likely have a “small” impact on global warming, as long as other countries resist the temptation to slacken their own carbon-cutting efforts, new research found Thursday.
Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has pledged to reverse the green policies of President Joe Biden and could pull the United States out of international efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.
This year is almost certain to be the hottest on record, with rising temperatures unleashing a deadly torrent of floods, heatwaves and storms across the world.
In a new analysis of countries’ climate plans, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) project said Trump’s potential retreat from the green transition could increase global temperatures by around 0.04C by the end of the century.
Bill Hare of Climate Analytics, one of the groups behind the tracker, said the effect could be “really quite small”.
“The damage it would do emission-wise to global climate action, if just confined to the United States and over four to five years, is probably recoverable,” he said.
But he said the impact could be significantly greater if other countries use shrinking ambitions from the US, the world’s second biggest emitter, as an excuse to slow walk their own climate actions.
That will become clear in the coming weeks and months, with nations expected to submit new and improved emissions-reduction commitments to the United Nations by February.
Hare said that a “fundamental” question will be the reaction of China, the biggest greenhouse gas emitter.
– ‘Flat-lined’ –
The CAT project calculated that the current crop of climate promises would see the world warm 2.6C by century’s end, with very little change in the outlook in the past three years suggesting that government action has “flat-lined”.
In a separate report released Thursday, CAT looked at the plans of the biggest greenhouse gas polluters.
The US, which accounts for the largest share of historical greenhouse gas pollution, has said it will cut emissions from all sectors in half by 2030 from 2005 levels.
CAT said US emissions would need to drop 65 percent this decade and 80 percent by 2035 to align with the 1.5C limit.
China, which has yet to outline a pledge covering emissions from all sectors, would need to slash carbon pollution 66 percent by 2030 from 2023 levels and 78 percent by 2035.
“If one looks at the rapid drop in emissions needed, it is reasonable to ask: How could this be possible?” Hare said of the China projections.
“The short answer is it’s mainly because we can decarbonise the power sector nearly everywhere, quite quickly. And the first thing to do is to get out of coal.”
The report comes after research published on Wednesday found that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again this year to a new record, meaning the cuts needed in the future are even sharper if the world is to meet its warming target.
Emissions of CO2 from coal, which account for 41 percent of the global total from fossil fuels, ticked up 0.2 percent this year, according to the projections by the Global Carbon Project, with decreases in the US and European Union and increases in China, India and the rest of the world.
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