U.S. Allies with Russia and Saudi Arabia to Undermine Climate Pact

The U.N. climate conference in Poland now enters into its second and final week. Negotiators are rushing to agree on a final guideline that limits the negative effects of climate change.

Three years ago, the Paris climate talks delivered the first ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. 195 countries signed an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to keep global warming to well below 2 degrees C.

This year’s COP24 Conference in Katowice is the most important meeting on the subject since 2015. The debate still centers on how developed countries can ease the financial pressure of developing countries while the latter implement costly low-carbon policies.

In October, delegates from all over the world agreed upon the 1.5c report produced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report outlined the severe consequences of global warming and ways to avoid them. It involved many technical details that representatives and scientists are still trying to work out.

“We still have a lot to do,” said Michal Kurtyka, the Polish president of the U.N. meeting. “It is very technical, very complex, very difficult.”

While the EU, a group of 47 least developed countries and other nations from Africa, Latin America and South America all signaled support for the report, the Trump administration is actively advocating against the document and trying to undermine the Paris climate pact as a whole.

On Saturday night, the U.S. joined Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to challenge the language of the report, refusing to “welcome” the findings and insisting that the study should only be “noted.” The proposed change would significantly weaken the strength of the document and make it much easier for governments to simply ignore it.

Rueanna Haynes, a delegate for St Kitts and Nevis, emphasized how “ludicrous” it was to dismiss a report which the UN had spent two years on.

“It’s very frustrating that we are not able to take into account the report’s findings: we are talking about the future of the world – it sounds like hyperbole when I say it, but that’s how serious it is,” she told the Guardian. “I would say that this issue has to be resolved. This is going to drag out and the success of the COP is going to hang on this as well as other issues.”

Researchers were also irritated by this move on the U.S. part.

“The IPCC 1.5C report is the most important climate assessment of the 21st Century,” said Prof Johan Rockström from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “Yet four nations refused to ‘welcome’ this reality. This is wilfully ignorant and grossly negligent. As ministers meet this week for UN climate talks in Poland, they must push for this report to be at the heart of the conference.”

At the same time, the U.S. tries to steer the talks away from environmental protection by holding events in support of fossil fuels. A statement from the U.S. State Department claims that such discussions are meant to “showcase ways to use fossil fuels as cleanly and efficiently as possible, as well as the use of emission-free nuclear energy”.

Lou Leonard from World Wild Life was irritated by this digression:”It is going to have virtually no impact on the actual talks – it’s a sideshow, it’s a side event, its not something related to what the parties are negotiating right now.”

“The event is going to further undermine the credibility of the US as a party in these talks,” he said.

Featured image via Kacper Pempel/Reuters