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.