Participants leaving town on Friday, even as negotiations drag on at the end of the two-week United Nations summit on climate change in Katowice, Poland. It’s also still a part of the overarching climate treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, that’s the formal organizing structure for these yearly talks. President Trump has rejected the science behind climate change, and his administration has adopted multiple policies that will roll back efforts to cut emissions. If Trump does not win reelection in 2020, a subsequent president could rejoin the Paris agreement. Flasbarth said the minimized U.S. role was particularly apparent in negotiations with China, which did not feel as much pressure to ramp up its commitment in fighting climate change as it otherwise might have.

Source: Washington Post December 15, 2018 21:03 UTC