Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday that other countries should “absolutely” follow the lead of the United States and withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Speaking at The New York Times’s Climate Forward live journalism event, Mr. Wright said that supporters of the landmark pact, under which almost all nations have agreed to combat climate change, have “become a club of people that have lost sight of the interests of their own people.”
As he spoke, about nine blocks east, across Midtown Manhattan, world leaders from China and more than 100 other countries pledged to strengthen their commitments to slow global warming.
The split-screen view underscored the extent to which the United States under President Trump has become isolated from the rest of the world on climate change, perhaps more than on any other issue. Mr. Trump has said the United States will withdraw from the Paris accord, joining Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only four countries to not recognize it. In recent months, Mr. Trump has also issued numerous policies that could thwart renewable energy projects, and his administration has ordered a halt to the construction of offshore wind farms.
Mr. Wright, the energy secretary and a former fracking executive, said on Wednesday during an onstage interview at the Climate Forward event that other countries should use more fossil fuels like oil and gas, calling them more affordable and reliable than renewables. The burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming through the release of greenhouse gases.
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The post At a Times Event, Opposing Views on Climate Change Collide appeared first on New York Times.
