The environment ministers of the G7 countries recently met to discuss environmental cooperation, particularly regarding the conservation of water resources and biodiversity. However, none of this took place without any mention of climate change—the primary cause of most catastrophic changes. The host country, France, omitted the climate agenda in an attempt to appease the administration of U.S. President Trump, who is known for his anti-environmental stance.
This was reported by Politico, citing a French government official.
France deliberately excluded the issue of global warming from the meeting’s agenda. The reason was an attempt not to provoke the American side. Previously, Donald Trump had openly called climate change a “hoax.”
“We decided not to address the climate issue directly. Why? Because the position of the United States on this matter is well known, and we believed that addressing this issue directly with the United States within the G7 framework would not signal unity,” said Monique Barbut, advisor to France’s Minister for the Ecological Transition, to journalists.
Undiplomatic move
The United States still effectively ignored the negotiations. They decided not to send a high-ranking official to Paris. Instead, the US was represented by Usha-Marie Turner, assistant administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The ministers represented the other six G7 countries.
“Apart from the climate crisis, there are many other environmental problems with global consequences, such as the protection of water resources and biodiversity. It is important for the US to continue participating in relevant international negotiations to address these issues. For now, at least, the US government has managed to have a separate meeting of G20 environment ministers called,” said a German government official.
European eco-activists criticized France’s position. The main reason for their disappointment was that the country missed the opportunity to work out solutions to a complex planetary problem, essentially having direct control over the agenda.
EcoPolitic reported that since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, the United States has consistently retreated from environmental goals. On the very first day, the new US leader signed a decision for the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Subsequently, the US continued its exit from key international organizations, annulment of climate legislative acts, and pressure on renewable energy. In particular, there were plans to cancel the fundamental “Endangerment Finding,” which stated the harm of greenhouse gases and was the foundation of US climate policy. The US also withdrew from dozens of agreements, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Even the American space agency NASA, in its report on the global temperature of the Earth, ignored terms such as “global warming,” “climate change,” “fossil fuels,” and “emissions.”
