China and the EU confront Trump on climate change. May just fawns over him

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/01/china-eu-climate-change-may-trump

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The most important international agreement to tackle climate change is about to be dealt a severe blow – but Theresa May is nowhere to be found.

Donald Trump is expected to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement, in which 195 countries signed up to ambitious targets to arrest the rise in global temperatures. Such a decision from the US will heighten the risk of a climate disaster, with all the damaging consequences to food supply, the global economy and our security.

Experts in the UK have made clear that climate change is a grave threat to national security, and Trump’s own defence secretary has issued the same warning for the US. Donald Trump’s actions put us all in greater peril.

Yet in the face of this threat, May is silent. We have a prime minister who is weak on the world stage and complicit in Trump’s world-harming act. While our European neighbours are joining with China and other developing countries to confront Trump and strengthen their efforts on climate change, Theresa May hasn’t issued a word of criticism. Whereas France’s new president used his first meeting with Trump to press him to stay in the Paris agreement, our prime minister failed to even mention it during her fawning trip to Washington in January.

This is unacceptable. Just as Donald Trump is abrogating America’s responsibility to lead the fight against climate change, Theresa May is evading Britain’s role. Instead of holding hands with Trump at the White House and rolling out the red carpet for him in London, the prime minister must stand up to him and convince him to keep America in the Paris agreement. Instead of the lavish trappings of a state visit, Trump should be greeted with robust British diplomacy. After all, what is the good of a special relationship unless we’re prepared to use it?

What’s most disappointing about May’s failure is that Britain played such a pivotal role in securing the agreement

May’s lack of leadership on this issue is appalling, but perhaps not all that surprising. One of her first acts as prime minister was to abolish the Department of Energy and Climate Change. She’s sold off the Green Investment Bank that we established in coalition, and is now calling for a fracking “revolution”. Nick Timothy, her chief of staff and righthand man, wrongly called the Climate Change Act a “monstrous act of self-harm”. No wonder her policy on climate change is so weak.

What’s most disappointing about May’s failure on climate change is that Britain played such a pivotal role in securing international agreement on it in the first place. As the energy and climate change secretary in the coalition government, I led the negotiations for an ambitious EU commitment that paved the way for success at the Paris conference. It was a clear demonstration of the influence Britain can wield as a member of the EU – influence that is particularly crucial in the face of global threats such as climate change. Only through international cooperation will we prevent catastrophe.

We now have to face the reality of an American president who ignores the scientific consensus that climate change is real and calls it a Chinese hoax. Clearly reason and evidence won’t change Trump’s mind, so we must bring international pressure to bear instead. If Trump does not face a backlash from the UK and other nations over this, he will take it as a sign that he can ride roughshod over any number of other international agreements in the future.

With Donald Trump in the White House, British leadership on the world stage is more important than ever. We should be working with our European allies, not turning them into opponents. We should be redoubling our own efforts to combat climate change, not watering them down. And we should be speaking out loud and clear against Trump’s irresponsibility. If this election is about leadership, it’s clear yet again that Theresa May has been found wanting.