Trump scraps US office on climate diplomacy
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump's administration has abolished the office that runs US climate diplomacy, potentially meaning the world's largest economy will be a no-show at November's COP30 summit in Brazil.
The State Department confirmed Friday that its Office of Global Change, which was in charge of representing the United States in UN climate diplomacy, was being closed.
'We will not participate in international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect our country's values,' a State Department spokesperson said.
'Consequently, this office -- which supported the efforts of previous administrations to hobble the United States through participation in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other agreements purporting to limit or prevent climate change -- is unnecessary.'
The move was not a surprise as Trump is a climate skeptic and moved to pull the United States for the second time out of the landmark Paris climate accord immediately on returning to office on January 20.
The climate office was among notable absences when Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday laid out a reorganization of the State Department that is expected to include job cuts.
But a complete US absence at the November summit in the Amazonian city of Belem would be a major shift in global climate diplomacy.
The United States participated in climate talks under the skeptic George W. Bush -- often with a goal of watering down agreements -- and fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia remain part of the process despite frequent disagreements.
Even if the United States ultimately sends some representative to the climate talks, it will mark a sharp shift in the profile of the position in just four years.
Former president Joe Biden elevated the climate envoy position to cabinet status and tapped for the role John Kerry, the former secretary of state, senator and presidential candidate.
Kerry worked closely with China, the world's largest emitter, during the 2023 COP28 conference in Dubai to reach a first-ever call for the world to move away from fossil fuels responsible for much of the world's warming.
The planet has already heated up at least 1.36 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, according to the EU's climate monitor Copernicus.
Scientists warn that 1.5C warming is enough for major damage to the planet, including rising disasters and the disappearance of most of coral reefs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
27 minutes ago
- The Star
Canadian bill seeks to deny hearings to some asylum-seekers
FILE PHOTO: A group of asylum seekers claiming to be from Haiti take their luggage out of a taxi as they arrive near a checkpoint on Roxham Road near Hemmingford, Quebec, Canada April 24, 2022. Picture taken April 24, 2022. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo TORONTO (Reuters) -A Canadian border-security bill introduced by the Liberal government earlier this week may deny some asylum-seekers a refugee hearing and make it easier for the government to revoke migrants' status. The bill comes as the government seeks to address U.S. concerns about its border security and reduce the number of migrants in the addition to denying some refugee hearings and allowing the suspension, cancellation or variance of immigration documents, the bill facilitates sharing people's information and makes it easier to read people's mail, among other measures. President Donald Trump has said Canada had failed to do enough to stem the flow of illicit fentanyl into the U.S., using that as justification for some of his tariffs. This week Trump doubled the tariffs in place on steel and aluminum, prompting calls for Canada to boost retaliatory measures of its own. Late last year Canada pledged C$1.3 billion to beef up its border. As Canada reduces the number of new permanent and temporary residents, its refugee system faces a historic backlog of more than 280,000 cases. This week's bill follows through on some of those border promises as well as on suggestions from some top ministers that Canada would fast-track refusals for some refugee claims. If the bill passes, asylum-seekers who have been in Canada more than one year would not be eligible for refugee hearings. Instead, they would have access to a pre-removal risk assessment, meant to determine whether they would be in danger in their country of origin. According to data published by Canada's Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Department, 30% of pre-removal risk assessments in 2019 for people deemed ineligible for refugee hearings were approved; by contrast, according to Immigration and Refugee Board data, that year 60% of finalized refugee hearings were approved. Asylum-seekers who wait two weeks to file claims after crossing from the U.S. to avoid being turned back under a bilateral agreement would also not get hearings. The bill, which needs to go through multiple readings before the House of Commons votes on it and sends it to the Senate, would also allow the government to "cancel, suspend or vary" immigration documents if deemed in the public interest. Migrant and refugee advocates worry the changes could leave vulnerable people deported to dangerous situations in their home countries without adequate due process. A spokesperson for Canada's Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said on Wednesday that the government recognizes the conditions in people's home countries may change, but the pre-removal risk assessment will prevent them from being returned to persecution or torture. "The asylum ineligibilities introduced yesterday seek to maintain protection for those fleeing danger while discouraging misuse that bypasses the asylum system's function – which is to protect the vulnerable," the spokesperson wrote in an email. "Canada is reneging on its basic human rights obligations to do individual arbitration," said Migrant Rights Network spokesperson Syed Hussan. "This is teeing up a deportation machine." (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; editing by Diane Craft)
Free Malaysia Today
44 minutes ago
- Free Malaysia Today
EU says ‘fully invested' in Trump trade talks after US court ruling
EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic has intensified talks with US counterparts after last week's tensions. (EPA Image pic) BRUSSELS : The EU is 'fully invested' in reaching a deal with the US to avoid sweeping tariffs, the bloc's trade chief said today, after US judges ruled the controversial measures were unconstitutional. 'Our time and effort fully invested, as delivering forward-looking solutions remains a top EU priority. Staying in permanent contact,' EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on X after a call yesterday with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. But Sefcovic did not make any comment on the court drama across the Atlantic. In a ruling Wednesday, the US court of international trade had barred most of the tariffs announced since president Donald Trump took office, but an appeals court the next day preserved his sweeping import duties on China and other trading partners. The short-term relief will now allow the appeals process to proceed. Sefcovic has previously said he had calls with his US trade counterparts on Friday, Saturday and Monday as the two sides intensify talks after last week's tensions. US President Donald Trump threatened last Friday, but then postponed, to hit EU goods with a huge tariff, voicing frustration that talks with the EU were 'going nowhere'.
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Exclusive-Ukraine hit fewer Russian planes than it estimated, US officials say
FILE PHOTO: A satellite view shows military aircraft, some sitting destroyed, at the Belaya air base, near Stepnoy, Irkutsk region, Russia, June 4, 2025, after Ukraine launched a drone attack, dubbed "Operation Spider's Web", targeting Russian strategic bombers during Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 2025 Planet Labs PBC/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States assesses that Ukraine's drone attack over the weekend hit as many as 20 Russian warplanes, destroying around 10 of them, two U.S. officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Still, the U.S. officials described the attack as highly significant, with one of them cautioning that it could drive Moscow to a far more severe negotiating position in the U.S.-brokered talks to end more than three years of war. Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to attack, Trump said in a social media post. Trump added it "was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace." Ukraine says it targeted four air bases across Russia using 117 unmanned aerial vehicles launched from containers close to the targets, in an operation codenamed "Spider's Web." It released footage on Wednesday showing its drones striking Russian strategic bombers and landing on the dome antennas of two A-50 military spy planes, of which there are only a handful in Russia's fleet. The two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, estimated the Ukrainian strikes destroyed around 10 and hit up to 20 warplanes in total. That estimate is far lower than the one Zelenskiy offered to reporters in Kyiv earlier on Wednesday. He said half of the 41 Russian aircraft struck were too damaged to be repaired. Reuters could not independently verify the numbers from Kyiv or the United States. Russia, which prioritizes its nuclear forces as a deterrent to the United States and NATO, urged the United States and Britain on Wednesday to restrain Kyiv after the attacks. Russia and the United States together hold about 88% of all nuclear weapons. The United States says it was not given any notice by Kyiv ahead of the attack. The war in Ukraine is intensifying despite nearly four months of efforts by Trump, who says he wants peace after the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Russian and Ukrainian embassies also did not immediately reply. ESCALATION RISK Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, said the damage to Russia caused by the operation amounted to $7 billion, and 34% of the strategic cruise missile carriers at Russia's main airfields were hit. Commercial satellite imagery taken after the Ukrainian drone attack shows what experts told Reuters appear to be damaged Russian Tu-95 heavy bombers and Tu-22 Backfires, long-range, supersonic strategic bombers that Russia has used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine. Russia's Defence Ministry has acknowledged that Ukraine targeted airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions and were repelled in the last three locations. It has also said several aircraft caught fire in the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions. The attack has bolstered Ukrainian morale after months of unrelenting Russian battlefield pressure and numerous powerful missile and drone strikes by Moscow's forces. It also demonstrated that Kyiv, even as it struggles to halt invading Russian forces, can surprise Moscow deep inside its own territory with attacks up to 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from the front lines. Influential Russian military bloggers have accused Russian authorities, especially the aerospace command, of negligence and complacency for allowing the nuclear-capable bombers to be targeted. Trump's Ukraine envoy said the risk of escalation from the war in Ukraine was "going way up," particularly since Kyiv had struck one leg of Russia's "nuclear triad," or weapons on land, in the air and at sea. "In the national security space, when you attack an opponent's part of their national survival system, which is their triad, the nuclear triad, that means your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side is going to do," Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News on Tuesday. (Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Don Durfee and Rod Nickel)
