US withdrawal from Paris Agreement puts pressure on UK Government to stand up to President Trump

Posted on 5 Nov 2019 in

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Donald Trump meet at the G7 Summit. Credit: Number10/Flickr

Commenting on the announcement by the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, that the Trump Administration has initiated the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said:

“This reckless decision by the Trump Administration puts pressure on the UK Government to challenge this course of action, given that the UK is co-hosting the crucial United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow at the end of 2020.

“The summit is intended to drive an increase in the strength of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that every country has pledged since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Mr Trump is due to visit London early next month for the NATO leaders summit, so the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, should take the opportunity to address the President’s false claims that the Paris Agreement is fraudulent and unfairly disadvantages the United States.

“Mr Johnson should demonstrate international leadership by standing up to Mr Trump on this issue, despite his desire to secure a favourable trade deal after Brexit, and challenge the President to reverse his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The Trump Administration’s failure to act on climate change means that carbon dioxide emissions from the United States, the world’s second largest emitter, have started to increase since he became President, putting at risk lives and livelihoods across the world.”

For more information about this media release please contact Kieran Lowe on +44 (0) 20 7107 5442 or k.lowe@lse.ac.uk or Bob Ward on +44 (0) 7811 320346 or r.e.ward@lse.ac.uk.

 

NOTES FOR EDITORS

  1. The ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (http://www.cccep.ac.uk/) is hosted by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science. It is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/). The Centre’s mission is to advance public and private action on climate change through rigorous, innovative research.
  1. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (http://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham) was launched at the London School of Economics and Political Science in October 2008. It is funded by The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment (http://www.granthamfoundation.org/).

 

-ENDS-