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Trump's Crackdown on Intl Climate Policies Might Impact Hurricane-Affected Developing Nations

  • Police patrol the area as Hurricane Irma slams across islands in the northern Caribbean on Wednesday, in San Juan, Puerto Rico September 6, 2017

    Police patrol the area as Hurricane Irma slams across islands in the northern Caribbean on Wednesday, in San Juan, Puerto Rico September 6, 2017 | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 September 2017
Opinion

"This budget’s severe cuts single out our clean air and water and our attempts to fight climate disruption," said Mary Anne Hitt.

As spree of Hurricanes continues to tear down and cause major destruction in developing countries, Trump's crackdown on climate policies can have a severe impact on the ability of these countries to recover fully. 

RELATED:
Cuba Leads the Way in Hurricane Irma Preparedness
 

Several small Carribean islands in the path of these strong tropical storms have suffered major destruction, the island of Barbados recorded over 90 percent of infrastructure damage, several small islands close to Puerto Rico, French islands of St Barts and St Martin, were smashed but these regions have limited resources to recover. Thousands of people have reportedly evacuated coastal regions in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. 

In a blog post, Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign,  included the international climate programs in a list of the 10 worst cuts in Trump’s budget proposal. 

"This budget’s severe cuts single out our clean air and water and our attempts to fight climate disruption," Hitt said. 

Trump proposed budget eliminates funding for a plethora of important projects like Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that coordinates global climate research; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, that forms the basis of international climate negotiations like the Paris Agreement; the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF); and climate programs at agencies like the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The US president also pulled out from the Paris climate agreement earlier in June. The agreement is aimed at limiting warming temperatures to 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels, and also shift all nations towards sustainable growth practices.

In June, during the Paris Climate Change negotiations, some vulnerable island nations had lobbied hard to strengthen the Paris deal. 

"We are deeply disappointed by today’s decision," a coalition of officials from Caribbean nations including Colombia, Costa Rica, Grenada, Mexico and Saint Lucia had said in a statement at the time. 

"Our commitment to the Paris Agreement is unshakeable. We have every reason to fight for its full implementation: our families, our health, our welfare, our security, our economies and our livelihoods."

Trump administration released the budget for the next fiscal year in May in which he called for ceasing funds to the global climate programs and attributed the cut to "a shift in global foreign policies." In his proposed budget, he said since the U.S. had already fulfilled its US$2 billion pledge to the Climate Investment Funds, the government does not intend to provide any further contributions. 

The funds under attack by the Trump administration include the Clean Technology Fund and the Strategic Climate Fund. The technology fund promotes low-carbon technologies and the climate fund helps vulnerable countries develop their programs to equip them to deal with climate change better. 

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