UK climate change experts have written to Prime Minister Theresa May urging her to challenge US President Donald Trump’s “policy of inaction” on climate change during his visit to the country later this week.
The letter says May should use the opportunity to warn the president that his lack of action over greenhouse gas emissions is putting UK national security at risk.
A total of 135 members of the UK’s climate change research community signed the letter, which highlight’s Trump’s intention to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement and his refusal to discuss climate change at the recent G7 summit.
This, they say, is evidence that “the US Government will not contribute to international efforts to manage the substantial risks caused by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere”.
The letter also states: “In refusing to take action on climate change, President Trump is ignoring the advice both of international experts and of experts in the US, such as the Global Change Research Program and the National Academy of Sciences.
“Since his inauguration as President in January 2017, Mr Trump has overseen a number of actions to undermine climate researchers in the US whose findings are used by policy-makers around the world.”
It concludes by saying the UK government should argue that climate change policy should be “based on the best available evidence”.
Image: US Government
UK urged to push Trump on climate
By EBS