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US switches focus of its Bonn event from clean
energy to fossil fuels
One of US’s only public events, originally billed as promoting clean energy, has
since been changed to favour coal and nuclear power
The US has changed the focus of one of its few public events at the Bonn climate
talks to emphasise coal and nuclear power, in a sign of the Trump
administration’s goals at the talks.
An event next Monday, opening the second week of the ongoing UN negotiations,
was originally billed as promoting clean energy. However, it has since been
changed to emphasise coal and nuclear power.
The event was first billed with the title Action on Spurring Innovation and
Deploying Advanced Technologies but was subsequently changed.
The same event has now been retitled to: The Role of Cleaner and More Efficient
Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power in Climate Mitigation. The speakers are listed as
the same, but the explanation of the event’s focus has also changed markedly,
from talk of “innovative solutions” and “transforming development pathways” to a
strong statement in favour of fossil fuels.
It now reads: “It is undeniable that fossil fuels will be used for the
foreseeable future, and it is in everyone’s interest that they be efficient and
clean. This panel will explore how the US will be a leader in cutting carbon
emissions through cleaner, more efficient fossil fuels and other energy
sources.”
There was no explanation of the change. A US state department official declined
to comment before the event but noted it would be open to all at the conference.
However, observers said the change was in line with the US government’s stance
at the talks, which are focused on how to improve countries’ carbon-cutting
targets under the Paris agreement of 2015.
Andrew Light of the World Resources Institute said: “Whoever the Trump
administration is trying to target with this event, it isn’t people in the
negotiating hall – they’re clearly focused on the booming global markets in
renewable energy. At best, this event will be a curiosity, given the isolation
of the US now in the international process.”
Although US president Donald Trump has begun the process of removing the US from
the Paris agreement, this will not take effect, under the UN processes, until
2020. This means the US is still a party to the agreement and still present at
the talks. However, for the first time in at least a decade, the US has no
visible official representation. Under Obama, there was always a large US
pavilion at the annual meetings – and even under George W Bush, who vowed to
keep the US out of the Kyoto protocol even when other countries had ratified it
and brought it into force in 2005.
At Bonn, the US occupies a small locked room that often seems unoccupied. There
is no pavilion, and Monday’s event on coal and nuclear power is the first public
sign of the US government’s engagement, though the UN said US delegates were
present at at least some of the many meetings taking place around the event.