The US, still in the Paris Agreement, is trying to decide its future

(Eco Business, 11 Dec 2018) As the White House hosts an event on fossil fuels, the state department is in Poland to make a deal that will shape the global accord.

Despite Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris Agreement, the US is still very much in the accord and zealously setting the tone of international climate change negotiations.

While the White House touted its fossil fuel industry on the sidelines of a UN climate summit in Poland, state department negotiators were deeply engaged in talks on the future of the Paris deal.

The apparent endgame, according to negotiators from other countries: push hard for a deal on the rulebook of the accord that this administration—and any future administration—will be able to swallow; just in case the US never leaves or chooses to return.

A senior non-US negotiator told Climate Home News she had heard directly from current and former state department diplomats that “they are trying to keep the rules as stringent as possible and without [different rules for developed and developing countries], so a future US government can rejoin [or] not leave the Paris Agreement”.

Another senior diplomat from a developed country said: “I think they are keen to secure a deal that’s fit for a future independent of their administration.”

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Eco Business, 11 Dec 2018: The US, still in the Paris Agreement, is trying to decide its future