Uncertainty over America’s future in the climate-rescue Paris Agreement loomed large over UN talks that opened in Bonn Monday to work out the nuts and bolts of implementing the hard-fought international deal. US President Donald Trump has yet to announce whether he intends keeping a campaign promise to withdraw Washington from the pact in whose birth his predecessor, Barack Obama, was instrumental. The 11-day Bonn haggle is meant to start drafting a “rulebook” to guide member countries in the practical execution of the pact, which seeks to brake global warming by curbing fossil fuel emissions. The Trump administration has already proposed slashing funds for the UN climate science panel, for the Green Climate Fund that helps poor countries combat global warming, and for the UN climate forum under whose auspices the negotiations take place. On Monday, 200 global investors managing more than $15tn in assets, urged the G7 rich country group, which includes the US, to “stand by their commitments to the Paris Agreement.”

Source: Dhaka Tribune May 08, 2017 18:22 UTC