A pro-coal event on Monday at the UN climate talks in Poland gave the US delegation the platform to outline its energy priorities. Wells Griffith, a senior US official, described an “energy renaissance” in the US, pointing to technological breakthroughs in hydraulic fracking and celebrating the country as “the number one combined oil and gas producer in the world”.
Over the weekend, US negotiators at the summit teamed up with those from oil-producing Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait to block a phrase about “welcoming” a recent scientific report on the impacts of climate change. President Donald Trump also took fresh aim at the Paris accord from 2015 that seeks to limit global warming to well below 2C. “Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!” he tweeted on Saturday, later suggesting a link with this weekend’s riots in the French capital.
Together they underscore the dramatic shift in the US’s climate change stance since Mr Trump entered the White House in 2017 and announced plans to withdraw from the agreement signed in Paris. Just three years ago, the US was an architect of the Paris deal, as President Barack Obama personally lobbied world leaders to reach the deal. The volte-face in US climate policy under Mr Trump has presented a challenge to the negotiators meeting for the COP24 event this week in the Polish city of Katowice. In addition to spurning the climate accord, the Trump administration has also taken aim at other multilateral organisations such as the Nato military alliance.
“It has taken a little bit of time since Trump’s announcement to withdraw [from the Paris accord] for things to filter through,” said Farhana Yamin, a veteran climate change adviser and founder of Track 0, a non-profit organisation. “This is the first COP at which there is a real showdown for what this means.” The aim of the Poland summit is to agree the fine print about how to implement the Paris agreement. The Trump administration’s position is attracting a following from other big fossil fuel producers, although none has gone as far as the US and said they would withdraw from the accord. Australia, which has threatened to pull financial support from the UN climate funding body, also featured at the pro-coal event.