The
Paris accords were never worth the toilet paper they were written on. Gaia has a mind of her own.
Merkel
Furious With Trump After "Unprecedented" G-7 Failure To
Reach Consensus On Climate Change
27
May, 2017
In
the end it was not mean to be. As discussed
on Friday, during
Trump's first G-7 summit, world leaders including German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron, had hoped to
persuade the the US president to endorse the Paris Agreement climate
pledge to fight global warming.
By the end of the summit - held at a luxury hotel in Taormina, Sicily that was once a Dominican monastery and base for the Nazi air force during World War Two - they realized they had failed, as Trump "underscored his determination to break the global mold" by refusing to follow the Group of Seven line not only on global warming but also by resisting measures on trade.
By the end of the summit - held at a luxury hotel in Taormina, Sicily that was once a Dominican monastery and base for the Nazi air force during World War Two - they realized they had failed, as Trump "underscored his determination to break the global mold" by refusing to follow the Group of Seven line not only on global warming but also by resisting measures on trade.
Furthermore,
in what
was described as
an "unprecedented
step",
the final G-7 communique gave the U.S. its own section to say that it
is “undergoing
a review process” and is unable to join in the discussion,
an official cited by Bloomberg
said.
As a result while the US will remain excluded from the final
affirmation, the other six, call it the G-6, will
recommit to the Paris Agreement on climate change, which Trump
tweeted Saturday he’d come to a decision on next week.
Needless to say, Merkel who had hoped to leave the Saturday summit with the G-7 agenda endorsed by everyone, including Trump, was furious at the US president.
I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!
Needless to say, Merkel who had hoped to leave the Saturday summit with the G-7 agenda endorsed by everyone, including Trump, was furious at the US president.
“The
whole discussion about climate has been difficult, or rather very
unsatisfactory"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters Saturday.
"Here we have the situation that six members, or even seven if you want to add the EU, stand against one. That means there are no signals until now whether the U.S. will remain in the Paris Agreement or not. We have therefore not talked around it but made clear that we the six member states and the EU remain committed to the goals of the agreement.”
"Here we have the situation that six members, or even seven if you want to add the EU, stand against one. That means there are no signals until now whether the U.S. will remain in the Paris Agreement or not. We have therefore not talked around it but made clear that we the six member states and the EU remain committed to the goals of the agreement.”
The
unhappy German continued: "The fact that we have not been able
to make progress here is of course a situation in which you have to
say that there is no common support for an important international
agreement. This Paris Agreement is not simply any old agreement, but
it’s rather a core agreement.”
She
concluded by noting the unprecedented breach of agreement within the
ranks, perhaps a first in G-7 history “There
is right now no agreement. But we have made very clear that we are
not moving away from our positions.”
Moments later, the final declaration released a just as stunning statement, which said that the U.S. was "not in a position to join consensus" on climate change.
BREAKING: Group of Seven final declaration says U.S. "not in a position to join consensus" on climate change.
To be sure, its wasn't just Merkel who was displeased with Trump. According to Politico, while he avoided any major gaffes or serious diplomatic breaches, Trump’s lack of rapport with European leaders raises serious questions about his ability to effectively team up with critical U.S. allies.
“Like
when there’s a new strange kid in the class nobody likes,” said
a senior EU official who was briefed on the closed NATO meetings in
Brussels.
“You behave civilly when teachers (media) watch but don’t spend time with him in private because he’s so different.”
“You behave civilly when teachers (media) watch but don’t spend time with him in private because he’s so different.”
* *
*
Trump's
inability to integrate with European leaders aside, there was at
least some G-7 concensus on trade, after government officials were
said to have found an agreement after haggling over wording on
protectionism and reciprocal benefits,Bloomberg
reported.
Technical negotiations had stretched until 3 a.m. in Taormina to try
to reconcile Trump’s ‘America First’ approach with the other
leaders’ commitment to open markets. The result is a reference to
combating protectionism to be included in the final text, according
to two of the officials. Still,
said the third, the document in its current draft clearly falls back
by comparison to earlier G-7 communiques.
The
leaders “found a reasonable solution” on trade that commits to a
rules-based system, Merkel said. “We want to make the WTO
successful,” she said.
Speaking
to reporters on the G-7's trade decision, Merkel said “we had very
tough discussions about trade. Here I think we have found a
reasonable solution. We commit ourselves to a rules- based trade
system. We want to make the WTO successful. We will together keep our
markets open and will move against protectionism, but will at the
same time fight against unfair trade practices. This is also in the
German interest when I think about the question of steel."
According
to Bloomberg,
the discussions, described by Merkel as “very intense” late on
Friday, "underscore the Trump administration’s decision to
break with the established order honed over decades. Trump told his
fellow leaders on Friday that he had campaigned on a platform of
protecting U.S. jobs and would act accordingly, according to the
officials, all of whom asked not to be named discussing the private
meetings."
But
the best indication of the hit globalization took over the past 48
horus, was the actual content of the final G-7 communique, which
was just six pages long compared to 32 pages last year. While
much was dropped from the final draft, the text will contain a
passage on migration, which it refers to as “human mobility."
It includes a sentence which says that nations also have the right to
protect their security, while observing human rights.
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