James' World 2

Hmmmm…More Storms, Floods, and Wildfires!

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CLIMATEWIRE | The Trump administration’s abrupt retreat from global climate action is threatening to delay a pivotal scientific report that can be used by countries to shape their responses to rising temperatures.

Delegates from more than 190 countries are meeting in Hangzhou, China, this week to make decisions related to the content and timing of the seventh assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. body that evaluates the science behind climate change.

The conclusions of the assessments — which are released every five to seven years — help inform governments about the sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the pollution’s effects on the planet and the risks of not acting to curb it. The comprehensive reports are also integral to ascertaining whether countries are doing enough to reduce emissions — a process under the Paris climate agreement known as a stocktake.

The U.S. delegation was prevented from attending the IPCC meeting by the Trump administration, said a government official who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation. The move follows

President Donald Trump’s announcement last month that he would immediately withdraw from the Paris deal.

Among the delegates who were blocked from attending the meeting is a federal scientist, Katherine Calvin, who was co-chairing one of three working groups that help assemble the next assessment. The Trump administration also halted a technical support unit that was backing that working group, according to two other government officials.

Losing that unit would ensure delays at the working group level of the assessment’s preparation, said one of those officials.

The State Department declined to comment.

Flouting the IPCC meeting is another signal that the Trump administration is pulling back from global climate engagement. U.S. officials did not attend a board meeting last week of the Green Climate Fund, the primary vehicle for helping poorer countries fund climate efforts. That’s been coupled with a complete assault on climate science at home, the shuttering of climate programs administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development and a broad freeze on foreign assistance.

There were already concerns among delegates and advocates about delays related to the IPCC’s seventh assessment following disagreements last year over some key elements of the report’s timeline. The main synthesis report is due in late 2029, but only after reports from the three working groups are completed. The idea is some of those would be published before the next stocktake in 2028.

“The Paris Agreement process must be informed by the best and latest available science,” a group of countries known as the High-Ambition Coalition urged in a statement Friday. Signatories include the United Kingdom, Germany, the European Union’s climate commissioner and several small island nations.

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