{"id":35355,"date":"2017-11-13T20:14:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T20:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=35355"},"modified":"2017-11-14T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T07:07:08","slug":"trumps-climate-official-i-actually-dont-know-2c-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2017\/11\/13\/trumps-climate-official-i-actually-dont-know-2c-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s climate official: ‘I actually don’t know what 2C means’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Trump administration attempt to offer\u00a0fossil fuels as a solution to climate change was subject to protest and walkouts on Monday at UN climate talks in Bonn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Representatives of the fossil fuel industry said they wanted to be part of the conversation and sat through intense questioning and heckling from media and protesters in the room.<\/p>\n

The bitterness that has divided the US since the election of Donald Trump arrived in Bonn, when around a hundred mostly American climate protestors disrupted the event, with song, heckling and protest banners.<\/p>\n

“So you claim to be an American, but we see right through your greed,” the protesters sang at\u00a0a panel including George David Banks, president Trump’s special energy assistant and moderated by vice president Mike Pence’s assistant Francis Brooke. Natural gas, coal and nuclear companies were also represented.<\/p>\n

Report:<\/strong> Coal deals \u2018very possible\u2019 as US holds industry event at UN climate talks<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As they marched out of the room, they were joined by hundreds of other demonstrators that had not been able to get in.<\/p>\n

The panel sat quietly through the protest before launching into a defence of the role of various forms of fossil energy in climate mitigation, in front of a half-empty room.<\/p>\n

Fossil fuels, including high efficiency coal power generation and carbon capture and storage,\u00a0“were vital” to achieving the goals of the Paris deal, said Holly Krutka, vice president of coal generation and emissions technologies from Peabody Energy.<\/p>\n

Banks said: “This panel is only controversial if we choose to bury our heads in the sand and ignore the realities of a global energy system.” He repeatedly said he was in Bonn to talk openly.<\/p>\n

Report:\u00a0<\/strong>Bloomberg demands seat at UN climate negotiating table for cities and states<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When asked later by Climate Home News if the administration held the policy that the 2C warming target from the Paris deal needed to be avoided, he said:\u00a0“I actually don’t know what that means, the 2C target”.<\/p>\n

Banks has been involved with climate policy, of which the 2C target is a fundamental tenet, since the Bush administration.<\/p>\n

Trump announced that the US would quit the Paris pact<\/a> in a Rose Garden Speech last June, although no exit will be possible before November 2020.<\/p>\n

When pushed on their position on Trump’s Paris withdrawal, two of the six panelists – the gas and nuclear representatives – said they disagreed, Krutka demurred,\u00a0Barry Worthington, executive director of the US Energy Association said he agreed. The administration officials both refused to answer, although Banks is widely understood to have\u00a0pushed for Trump to stay inside the Paris deal.<\/p>\n

On the Paris deal, Banks said: “We’re part of the\u00a0UNFCCC and climate mitigation is an important goal of the\u00a0US but… I don’t think its any surprise that economic prosperity is a higher priority. When the president looks at the Paris Agreement and climate policy in general, he looks\u00a0through the lens of what effect does this have on\u00a0US manufacturing and competitiveness.”<\/p>\n

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Here we go. #COP23<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sIhF5T2rWj<\/a><\/p>\n

— Lisa Friedman (@LFFriedman) November 13, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n