President Donald Trump is “bullying” countries into revising their climate change targets, net-zero advocate Al Gore has said, adding that the current U.S. administration was “actively attempt[ing] to slow down the pace of the energy transition in every way that they can”.
Gore spoke with the Financial Times in an interview, in which he referred to the recent tour of Europe by senior Trump officials, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who warned the European Union that their focus on net zero and a transition from oil and gas to alternatives was risky for U.S.-EU trade relations.
Indeed, Wright said, as quoted by the FT again, that EU regulations on methane emissions, a new directive that would mandate reporting on emissions and human rights violation across a company’s supply chain, and finally the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism seeking to protect the competitiveness of European companies could undermine the trade deal Trump sealed with EC President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this year.
“Net zero 2050 is just a colossal train wreck . . . It’s just a monstrous human impoverishment programme and of course there is no way it is going to happen,” Wright said at the time.
According to Al Gore, this is an “effective bullying tactic”, which, however, “is going to be a diminishing asset for [Trump], because the rest of the world is just onto the fact that it’s nuts”.
In fact, the European Union itself just delayed a crucial decision on its 2040 emission-reduction target because member states had misgivings about the 90% reduction target. The delay had nothing to do with Trump or Wright, according to comments made by diplomats involved in the latest discussions.
“These ideological proposals [2040 climate target] are more proof that Brussels bureaucrats have already lost basic contact with reality. They have no idea what economic danger the European and unfortunately the Slovak industry is in,” Slovakia’s environment minister said this week, as quoted by Euronews.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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