marrakesh, morocco<u+2014>senior u.s. officials at a major climate change conference monday, echoed by president barack obama, contended the world will seek to keep cutting carbon emissions, despite president-elect donald trump <u+2019>s vow to turn back the u.s.<u+2019>s own efforts. mr. trump, who has called climate change a hoax, said that in his first 100 days as president he would cancel an accord the obama administration helped broker among nearly 200 nations last year in paris. he has also said he would cut off u.s. aid to a $100 billion global fund designed to help poorer nations address climate change. u.s. officials at the morocco conference didn<u+2019>t directly comment on mr. trump<u+2019>s possible actions, but they said the international community is committed to the paris deal. <u+201c>the world is different. the paris agreement exists,<u+201d> said energy secretary ernest moniz in an interview on the sidelines of the conference. <u+201c>i cannot see a rollback from a low-carbon future.<u+201d> in a press conference in washington, mr. obama added about the accord, <u+201c>there<u+2019>s been a lot of talk about the possibility of undoing this international agreement. now, you<u+2019>ve got 200 countries that have signed up for this thing, and the good news is that what we<u+2019>ve been able to show over the last five, six, eight years is that it<u+2019>s possible to grow the economy really fast and possible to bring down carbon emissions as well.<u+201d> much of the talk on the sidelines of the conference focused on the uncertainty surrounding the incoming trump administration. some expressed hope that mr. trump wouldn<u+2019>t follow through on his pledge to pull out of the paris accord, especially given that he has equivocated on other policy issues, such as repealing altogether mr. obama<u+2019>s health-care law . but a spokesman for mr. trump<u+2019>s transition team, jason miller, on monday reiterated the president-elect<u+2019>s position in a statement to the wall street journal: <u+201c>as part of our pro-american energy plan, we said we<u+2019>d withdraw from the deal.<u+201d> the morocco conference, held under the auspices of the united nations, could provide an early sign of how obama officials will navigate the diplomatic landscape as an administration waits in the wings with very different views not just on climate but on international engagement more broadly. jonathan pershing, a state department official and washington<u+2019>s top climate negotiator, fielded some dozen questions at a press briefing monday, nearly all which involved mr. trump in one way or another. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t think the u.s. change here is going to affect the development pathway,<u+201d> mr. pershing said. he noted that countries, including china and brazil, are shifting to sources of energy that emit fewer carbon emissions than conventional fossil fuels, regardless of what the u.s. does. that creates the possibility that china and the u.s., the world<u+2019>s two biggest polluters, could switch positions on climate, as china works with the international community to reduce emissions while the u.s. withdraws from such efforts. mr. trump has a few different avenues for pulling the u.s. out of the paris agreement, and he could pursue them simultaneously. while the president cannot unilaterally cancel the paris deal, he could begin the lengthy process of officially withdrawing the u.s. from it, which could take years. since the deal is officially in effect, a country must wait three years to pull out, and once it makes that decision, it must wait another year to actually do so. a quicker option would be to withdraw from the parent agreement, called the united nations framework convention on climate change, or unfccc, which has been in effect for 22 years. that agreement allows countries to withdraw with one year<u+2019>s notice, automatically withdrawing them from any deals that are a subset of the unfccc, including the paris accord. another, perhaps simpler, option would be to issue an executive order withdrawing the u.s. from the deal, though the legality of such a move is in doubt. daniel bodansky, a professor at the sandra day o<u+2019>connor college of law at arizona state university, said such a move would likely violate international law. write to amy harder at amy.harder@wsj.com
u.s. officials say world climate-change efforts to continue despite trump<u+2019>s views - wsj
amy harder