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Thank you President Trump! ‘New strains in global climate diplomacy’ as more nations signal UN Paris dissent – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia & Brazil – Trump’s Clexit gives ‘protective cover’ for other countries to withdraw

https://www.axios.com/g20-summit-paris-climate-deal-white-house-dissent-97478de0-e48c-42c2-b687-5fe196a4a7dc.html

Excerpts:

The White House is making the case that several big countries are having doubts about the Paris climate deal — even as the weekend brought a stark sign of U.S. isolation.

Why it matters: The administration’s claims of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Russia having second thoughts about the Paris deal came just ahead of a UN summit kicking off in Poland this week focused on implementing the 2015 agreement.

This year’s annual UN conference is unfolding amid new strains in global climate diplomacy and fresh signs of the hurdles to sharply cutting global emissions.

Brazil, an ecologically vital country with an incoming far-right president, has backed out of hosting next year’s UN conference.

Robert Stavins, a Harvard expert on climate diplomacy, tells Axios that Trump’s intention to abandon Paris has emboldened some other countries.

“[T]he White House recognizes that its authoritarian government friends — Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia — may find it easier to pull back from the Paris Agreement (for which all three were already unenthusiastic, to say the least), given the protective cover for such action…”

The AFP’s reporting backs up some of these claims. They cited a French source who said a “certain number of countries” hesitated before confirming their commitment to Paris.

It’s worth noting that the administration official said China — by far the world’s biggest carbon emitter — was not among the second-guessers.

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