Donald Trump overshadows climate talks

T TV Sunday 19/November/2017 12:50 PM
By: Times News Service

Almost 200 nations kept a 2015 global agreement to tackle climate change on track on Saturday after marathon talks overshadowed by U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out.
After marathon talks at the Bonn climate summit, almost 200 nations agreed to keep a 2015 global agreement on track to tackle climate change on Saturday (November 18).
The Bonn meeting was under the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision in June to withdraw from the Paris accord and instead promote the coal and oil industry.
As the U.S. slowly withdraws from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, some expected China to fill the vacuum.
Particularly given President Xi Jinping's drive to increase China's influence abroad.
But the talks haven't done much to confirm the theory. Delegates and diplomats there telling Reuters that China didn't dominate talks in the way some predicted, focusing mostly on domestic policy instead.
China's traditionally seen itself only as a leader of emerging economies, arguing that Europe, the US and Japan should be leading cuts to emissions since they've been pumping them out since the Industrial Revolution.
China's own emissions are still increasing year over year and they say they won't peak until 2030. The United States, by contrast, has seen falling emissions for over ten years.
Yet, the framework of the 2015 Paris climate agreement was effectively decided between Xi and President Barack Obama. So when President Donald Trump, who doubts climate change is manmade pulled out, it was expected that Xi would fill the gap.
One delegate said that even if they aren't dominating talks, China's still done more than many other countries, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into renewable energies.