Trump’s Economic Adviser: Obama’s Global Warming Pledge ‘Crippling’ US Growth

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
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A top White House economic adviser said Thursday that keeping the Obama administration’s global warming pledge to the United Nations would be “highly crippling” to economic growth.

“We know that the levels that were agreed to by the prior administration would be highly crippling to the US economic growth,” chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said aboard Air Force One Thursday, referring to former President Barack Obama’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Paris climate agreement.

Obama pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. But that plan would be economically harmful, according to Cohn, and experts say they would not reduce emissions enough comply with the Paris agreement.

President Donald Trump promised to cancel the 2015 United Nations pact while on the campaign trail. Now, Trump says he will make a decision on the agreement following the G7 summit in Italy this week. Nearly 200 countries agreed to a U.N. deal in 2015.

“The president has told you that he’s going to ultimately make a decision on Paris and climate when he gets back,” Cohn said. “He’s interested to hear what the G7 leaders have to say about climate.”

Trump “wants to do the right thing for the environment,” Cohn said. “He cares about the environment. But he also cares very much about creating jobs for American workers.”

Even if Trump keeps the U.S. in the Paris global warming agreement, it will almost certainly fail.

The significant reductions to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions required by the agreement are extremely difficult to achieve due to the immense costs involved. Scientists estimate that simply limiting global warming to the Paris agreement targets would require the annual installation of 485,000 wind turbines by 2028. Only 13,000 turbines were installed in 2015, despite the enormous tax breaks and subsidies offered to wind power.

“It would require rates of change in our energy infrastructure and energy mix that have never happened in world history and that are extremely unlikely to be achieved,” Glenn Jones, a professor of marine sciences at Texas A&M who co-authored the study on the feasibility of the agreement, told Science Daily. “For a world that wants to fight climate change, the numbers just don’t add up to do it.”

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May 26, 2017 at 11:43AM

Trump Not Swayed By G-7 Leaders On Paris Climate Deal

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
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President Trump resisted some intense lobbying by leaders of other industrialized nations Friday to back the Paris climate-change agreement at a G-7 summit in Sicily, Italy.

After hours of discussions, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters that the U.S. position on the Paris accord remains an “open question.”

“All others have confirmed their total agreement on the accord,” he said of the leaders of Germany, Japan, Italy, Britain, France and Canada. Former President Barack Obama signed the Paris agreement to limit carbon emissions in 2015, but Mr. Trump is weighing a move to pull the U.S. out of the deal. He promised to do so during the campaign last year.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the group’s discussions with Mr. Trump Friday on the climate-change deal were “controversial” and “very intensive.”

The president has said he’ll make up his mind about the Paris accord after returning home from the G-7 Summit. White House national economic council Director Gary Cohn said Friday that timetable hasn’t changed.

“The leaders did want to know what his time frame was, and [Mr. Trump] said, look, ‘This is something where I want to get to the right decision. I’d rather take my time, I’d rather understand the issues, and I’d rather get to right decision on that,’” Mr. Cohn said.

Mr. Cohn said the president’s views “are evolving.”

“He came here to learn. He came here to get smarter. He came here to hear world leaders’ views,” Mr. Cohn said.

But White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster emphasized that Mr. Trump will ultimately base his decision on “what he thinks is best for the American economy.”

The Washington Times, 26 May 2017

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May 26, 2017 at 11:43AM

For Now, Trump Refuses To Cave On Paris Climate Deal

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

President Trump dug in his heels last night over committing America to the climate deal signed by President Obama, citing fears that such an agreement could threaten US jobs.

Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, heads of the European Council and European Commission, flank the leaders of the G7: Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel, President Trump, Paolo Gentiloni, President Macron, Shinzo Abe and Theresa May — STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PRESS ASSOCIATION

On the first day of a two-day meeting of the G7 leaders at Taormina in Sicily, the host, Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian prime minister, said that the US leader had yet to be convinced not to back out of the Paris Accord, which seeks to limit emissions.

Gary Cohn, Mr Trump’s economic adviser, said that Mr Trump had stuck to prioritising the issue of US jobs, which he believes are threatened by shifting to clean energy. He said that the president “wants to do the right thing for the environment, he cares about the environment, but he also cares very much about creating jobs for American workers”.After the first round of talks, Mr Gentiloni said: “We are hopeful that the US will want to participate and we hope there are positive decisions in the coming days or weeks.”

Mr Cohn hinted that the president might yet be convinced, saying after the session that the president felt “much much more knowledgeable” on the topic than he did previously. He said that Mr Trump had told the G7 leaders that the environment was “very, very important” to him and that he had even cited environmental awards that he had received.

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via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

May 26, 2017 at 11:36AM

The Silence of the Lamb Koftas

via Climate Scepticism
https://cliscep.com

Alert readers may have noticed that our joint blog has been dominated by Brad Keyes lately, and that the rest of us have been pretty silent. This is partly because Brad, living in a distant time zone, posts when we’re asleep. Some of us Brits are getting on a bit and need tucking up early. … Continue reading The Silence of the Lamb Koftas

via Climate Scepticism https://cliscep.com

May 26, 2017 at 11:02AM