This week’s must watch: Our own Bob Inglis talks to CNN’s Jake Tapper about the Trump Administration’s head to lead the Environmental Protection Agency transition team.
This week’s must read from Forbes: China commits to maintaining climate commitments made in Paris even if Trump pulls U.S. out of agreement.
This week in climate change, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who in the past dismissed efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because “nobody can control the climate except God,” called on President-elect Donald Trump to keep the U.S. in the Paris Climate Agreement. “President-elect Trump should accept the Paris Treaty on climate to buy some goodwill overseas,” O’Reilly said. “It doesn’t really amount to much anyway. Let it go.”
The agreement, which is not legally binding, went into effective on November 4, 2016, after the requisite number of countries contributing more than 55 percent of emissions ratified it. There are several paths by which Trump could abandon the agreement, including withdrawing the U.S. from the 1992 treaty the pact amends, which he could not do until the agreement has been in effect for one year. Another approach would be to not require the U.S. to cut emissions on a path to make its promised reductions. In a letter delivered this week, more than 300 U.S. companies asked Trump to maintain U.S. presence in the agreement.
Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who served under President Ronald Reagan, gave advice to President-elect Donald Trump on a suite of policy issues and said he hopes the new administration will consider action on climate change.
“People who say the climate isn’t changing are in the process of getting mugged by reality,” he said. “Zika is the tip of the iceberg. With climate change, tropical diseases are coming north, carried by mosquitoes . and we’re not ready for it.”
Shultz is a long time supporter of a carbon tax.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, who earlier this year signed an executive order for a climate adaption plan for the Commonwealth, made a series of grants and loans to help local communities with climate resiliency measures. The grants were administered through the Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Fund and totaled $10 million. Eight coastal protection projects were included in the announcement.
“Through the Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Fund, we hope to protect our communities and natural resources from the effects of strong storms and ensure dams and seawalls across the state are not a threat to public safety,” said Baker. “Our administration is focused on proactively increasing the resiliency of the Commonwealth’s infrastructure and helping cities and towns prepare for the impacts of climate change.”
Stay tuned as we continue to follow ecoright climate news and who will serve in environmental and natural resource positions in the new administration.