India At Melbourne E-Magazine India At Melbourne | Page 21

facebook.com/indiaatmelbourne
www.indiaatmelbourne.com.au
WORLD NEWS
World Forges Ahead With Paris Climate Deal Without Donald Trump
BRUSSELS: The world forged ahead Friday with the
Paris climate deal after President Donald Trump pulled
the US out of the pact, triggering bitter condemnation
from all corners of the globe.
Trump announced Thursday that his administration
would immediately stop implementing the 195-nation accord
brokered by Barack Obama in 2015 in tandem with Chinese
leaders.
The European Union said it was increasing efforts with
China, the world’s biggest polluter, to galvanise global
efforts to implement the deal while India vowed to stick
to the pact regardless of the United States.
Trump also faced a backlash at home where Democratic
state governors, city mayors and powerful companies
drew up plans to meet the pact’s greenhouse gas emission
targets.
“Americans will honour and fulfill the Paris agreement
by leading from the bottom up — and there isn’t anything
Washington can do to stop us,” former New York mayor
and billionaire Michael Bloomberg said.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin spared
Trump more withering criticism and urged the world to
work with the New York tycoon on climate.
In Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk
said the EU is “stepping up our cooperation on climate
change with China” following a summit with Chinese Premier
Li Keqiang.
But EU officials said the two sides failed to formally
endorse a joint statement on the issue due to a lingering
but separate trade row.
Expressions of shock and regret poured in from around
the world, including from Pacific islands at risk of being
swallowed by rising seas, who accused Washington of
“abandoning” them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU’s most
powerful leader, pledged “more decisive action than ever”
to protect the climate after Trump’s “highly regrettable”
decision.
‘Nothing to renegotiate’
In a nationalistic “America First” announcement from
the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he was
withdrawing from a UN-backed deal that imposes
“draconian financial and economic burdens” on the United
States while going too easy on economic rivals China,
India and Europe.
“We don’t want other leaders and other countries
laughing at us anymore. And they won’t be.”
Trump offered no details about how, or when, a formal
withdrawal would happen. At one point he suggested a
renegotiation could take place, an idea that was
unceremoniously slapped down by partners.
“There is nothing to renegotiate here,” EU climate
commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told reporters in
Brussels.
The United States is the world’s second-largest
greenhouse gas emitter, after China, so Trump’s decision
could seriously hamper efforts to cut emissions and limit
global temperature increases.
Nicaragua and war-torn Syria are the only countries
not party to the Paris accord, the former seeing it as not
ambitious enough.
Trump’s decision is likely to play well with the Republican
base, with the more immediate damage likely to appear
on the diplomatic front.
Vice President Mike Pence said that Trump “has
demonstrated his commitment… to put American workers,
UN expands North Korea blacklist in first US,
China sanctions deal under Donald Trump
United Nations: The U.N. Security
Council on Friday expanded
targeted sanctions against North
Korea after its repeated missile tests,
adopting the first such resolution
agreed by the United States and
Pyongyang`s only major ally China
since President Donald Trump took
office.
The Trump administration has
been pressing China aggressively
to rein in its reclusive neighbor,
warning that all options are on the
table if Pyongyang persists with its
nuclear and missile development
programs.
The United States has struggled
to slow those programs, which
have become a security priority
given Pyongyang`s vow to develop
a nuclear-tipped missile capable of
hitting the U.S. mainland.
“The United States will continue
to seek a peaceful, diplomatic
resolution to this situation,” U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations
Nikki Haley told the council after
the vote.
But she added: “Beyond
diplomatic and financial
consequences, the United States
21
June, 2017
remains prepared to counteract
North Korean aggression through
other means, if necessary.”
Adding names to the U.N.
blacklist – a global travel ban and
asset freeze – was the minimum
sanctions measures the Security
Council could have taken and
comes after five weeks of
negotiations between Washington
and Beijing.
“The Security Council is sending
a clear message to North Korea
today – stop firing ballistic mi ssiles
or face the consequences,” Haley
said.
The resolution, adopted
unanimously by the 15-member
council, sanctions four entities,
including the Koryo Bank and
Strategic Rocket Force of the
Korean People`s Army, and 14
people, including the head of
Pyongyang`s overseas spying
operations. North Korea`s Koryo
Bank handles overseas transactions
for Office 38, a shadowy body that
manages the private slush funds
of the North Korean leadership,
according to a South Korean
government database.
American consumers, American energy, and the American
people first.”
Echoes of reality TV
Ever the showman, the 70-year-old Trump gave his
decision a reality TV-style tease, refusing to indicate his
preference either way until his announcement.
Opponents of the pullout — said to include Trump’s
daughter Ivanka — had warned that Washington’s global
leadership role was at stake, along with the environment.
A dozen large companies including oil major BP,
agrochemical giant DuPont and tech heavyweights
Google, Intel and Microsoft had urged Trump to stick to
the pact.
Following the announcement Tesla boss Elon Musk
and Disney chief Robert Iger said they would no longer
participate in presidential business councils.
“Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for
America or the world,” Musk said.
‘Morally criminal’
White House officials acknowledged that under the
deal, a formal withdrawal might not take place until after
the 2020 election, and leaders will certainly push Trump
to reconsider his decision in the meantime.
India’s environment minister Harsh Vardhan said his
country is committed to the Paris accord “irrespective” of
the position of other nations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who has said failing
to address climate change would be “morally criminal”
— is due to visit the White House shortly.
Trump’s announcement comes less than 18 months
after the climate pact was adopted, the fruit of a hard-
fought agreement between Beijing and Washington under
Obama’s leadership.
The Paris Agreement commits signatories to efforts to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global
warming, which is blamed for melting ice caps and glaciers,
rising sea levels and an increase in extreme weather events.
They vowed to take steps to keep the worldwide rise in
temperatures “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6
degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times and to “pursue
efforts” to hold the increase under 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Son of Indian doctor all set
to become Ireland’s next PM
New Delhi: Leo Varadkar was 22 when
he made his foray into Irish politics. At 27,
he was elected to the parliament. At 36, he
publicly came out as a gay and finally, at the
age of 38, Vardakar appears on course to
become Ireland’s next
prime minister.
Born to an Indian
immigrant father and
a n I r i s h m o t h e r,
Varadkar is currently
serving as Ireland’s
Minister for Social
Protection.
He
announced
his
campaign to succeed
Taoiseach Enda Kenny,
prime minister since
2011 and leader of the ruling Fine Gael party
since 2002, shortly after Kenny announced
he would be stepping down from the post
earlier this month.
Varadkar’s only opponent is Housing
Minister Simon Coveney, who hails from a
family of Fine Gael stalwarts.
If Varadkar is elected, the move would give
the Catholic country its first openly gay
leader and its first of Asian immigrant descent.
Here’s all you need to know about him:
Vardakar was born iand raised in Dublin
to mother Miriam, a nurse originally from
Waterfold and father Ashok, a doctor from
Mumbai. He worked as a general practitioner
before winning a seat in the Parliament in
2007.
He came out as a gay
in 2015 when Ireland
became the first country in
the world to legalise same-
sex marriage through
popular vote. The popular
minister has campaigned
on same-sex marriage and
liberalising abortion laws.
He held several
m i n i s t e r i a l p o r tf o l i o s
including minister for social
protection and minister for transport, tourism
and sports.
If elected, Varadkar would be one of two
openly gay heads of state currently in office
— Luxembourg’s prime minister Xavier Bettel
being the other.
In the past, two other world leaders who
went public with their sexuality were former
Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and former
Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna
Siguroardottir.
India at Melbourne