UN recommits to combating climate change
November 18, 2016, 7:53 pm

China has warned the incoming Trump administration that climate change is not a hoax [Xinhua]

This came amid fears that the incoming US administration would backtrack on the deal.

A “Marrakesh Action Proclamation” issued at the conference called on member states to boost funding for projects to cope with the effects of climate change.

“We call for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority,” the statement read.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said the next US administration should continue to support the historic Paris Agreement on climate change to avoid a repeat of the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, Xinhua reports.

He warned the incoming White House Trump administration not to take climate change lightly and rebuffed the President-elect’s claim that it was all a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government.

The conference was tasked with drafting a blueprint for enacting the Paris Agreement, which was adopted last December and has since been ratified by 111 parties – most recently Britain on Thursday.

Signatories to the deal, which include the US, have pledged to curb emissions by shifting to renewable energy sources.

Trump, however, has vowed to boost oil, gas and coal consumption and “cancel” the global deal.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who led his country’s delegation in Marrakesh, tried to ease global fears of such a Trump-led backtracking.

“I know the election has left some uncertainty about the future,” he said. “I can’t speculate about what policies the president-elect will pursue, but I’ve learned that some issues look a little bit different when you’re in office compared to campaign. Climate change should not be a partisan issue in the first place,” he told other delegates.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies