Links tagged “tillerson”

GOOD RIDDANCE REX! Rex Tillerson...allowed career employees at State to continue their work on climate issues. “I didn’t see any evidence of interference from the secretary’s office to the positions taken by the negotiators,” said Andrew Light, a former State Department climate adviser.

GOOD RIDDANCE DAVE & GARY! Trump has said he wants to withdraw from the Paris agreement and renegotiate its terms. But the administration has now lost almost everyone capable of that work: A top international environmental policy adviser, George David Banks, resigned in February. Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser, who negotiated directly with climate ministers from other countries, resigned in March. “Those are big losses that will take you a while to come back from,” said Connaughton.

GREAT! LET CHINA SEEK 'GLOBAL ENDEAVOR FOR ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION' WITHOUT U.S. HELP! The erosion of American engagement in climate diplomacy has already allowed China to become the de facto world leader on global environmental policy. China has become more assertive about climate leadership, with President Xi Jinping pledging last year to make the country the “torch-bearer in the global endeavor for ecological civilization.”

UK Independent: It is thought Mr Tillerson believes it is important the US retains influence on the rest of the world that would be lost if it withdraws from the agreement. Marc Morano, an ex-Republican Senate staffer who now runs the fossil-fuel funded website Climate Depot, told the Times: “The two greatest obstacles to a Clexit are probably Ivanka and Tillerson. “Tillerson with his ‘seat at the table’ views could be biggest proponent of not withdrawing the US from the agreement.”

“The two greatest obstacles to a Clexit (climate exit from U.N. Paris agreement) are probably Ivanka and Tillerson,” wrote Marc Morano, a former Republican Senate staff member who now runs Climate Depot, a fossil-fuel-industry-funded website that promotes the denial of climate science, in an email. “Tillerson with his ‘seat at the table’ views could be biggest proponent of not withdrawing the U.S. from the agreement.”