De beslissing van de Amerikaanse president, Donald Trump, om uit het klimaatverdrag van Parijs te stappen, heeft tot heftige reacties geleid. De Duitse Bondskanselier, Angela Merkel, heeft gepoogd een ‘front’ te vormen om Trump politiek te isoleren. Aanvankelijk leek dit te lukken. Maar net als bij de de roman van Agatha Christy, ‘En toen waren er nog maar …’, blijken vele landen nu af te haken. Voor hen prevaleren geopolitiek en goede betrekkingen met de VS boven klimaatbeleid.

Onder de titel, ‘Merkel’s G-20 Climate Alliance Is Crumbling’, schreven Christiane Hoffmann, Peter Müller en Gerald Traufetter in ‘Der Spiegel’:

The German chancellor had been hoping to isolate Donald Trump on climate issues at the upcoming G-20 summit in Hamburg. But Merkel’s hoped-for alliance is crumbling, underscoring Germany’s relative political weakness globally. Many countries are wary of angering the United States.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had actually thought that Canada’s young, charismatic prime minister, Justin Trudeau, could be counted among her reliable partners. Particularly when it came to climate policy. Just two weeks ago, at the G-7 summit in Sicily, he had thrown his support behind Germany. When Merkel took a confrontational approach to U.S. President Donald Trump, Trudeau was at her side.

But by Tuesday evening, things had changed. At 8 p.m., Merkel called Trudeau to talk about how to proceed following Trump’s announced withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. To her surprise, the Canadian prime minister was no longer on the attack. He had switched to appeasement instead.

What would be wrong with simply striking all mentions of the Paris Agreement from the planned G-20 statement on climate, Trudeau asked. He suggested simply limiting the statement to energy issues, something that Trump would likely support as well. Trudeau had apparently changed his approach to Trump and seemed concerned about further provoking his powerful neighbor to the south.

Het artikel vervolgt met een overzicht van de verschillende verdere stappen die Angela Merkel ondernam om de VS te isoleren inzake het klimaatebleid.

But even before Trump announced the American withdrawal from the Paris Agreement that evening in the White House Rose Garden, it had become clear in Berlin that they would miss their first target. [Noot HL: “We have to stay together, we have to close ranks.”] Led by the Italian G-7 presidency, the plan had been for a joint reaction to Trump’s withdrawal, an affirmation from the remaining six leading industrial nations: We remain loyal to Paris.

Suddenly, though, Britain and Japan no longer wanted to be part of it. British Prime Minister Theresa May didn’t want to damage relations with Trump, since she would need him in the event of a hard Brexit, the Chancellery surmised last week. And given the tensions with North Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe couldn’t put his country’s alliance with the U.S. at risk. In other words: Climate policy is great, but when it comes to national interests, it is secondary.

Lees verder hier

‘En toen waren er nog maar …’ Tja, zo gaan die dingen.

Voor mijn eerdere bijdragen over klimaat en aanverwante zaken zie hier, hier, hier, hier en hier.