US and them: America, the elephant in room at climate talks

HIGHLIGHTS
The US has a delegation at
international climate talks in Bonn
that will be telling other nations what
they should do on an agreement that
the president wants no part of.
President Donald Trump has promised
to withdraw the US from the 2015
Paris climate pact.
The US position is not just awkward,
it's potentially bad for the
environment, say scientists.
WASHINGTON: How's this for awkward?
The United States has a delegation at
international climate talks in Bonn that
will be telling other nations what they
should do on an agreement that the
president wants no part of.
President Donald Trump has promised to
withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris
climate pact where nations set their own
goals to reduce the emissions of heat-
trapping gases, but because of legal
technicalities America can't get out until
November of 2020.
"It's like having a guest at a dinner party
who complains about the food but stays
anyway," said Nigel Purvis, who worked
climate issues in the State Department
for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W.
Bush and dealt with a similar situation.
In 2001 Purvis was a climate negotiator
for the US State Department when the
new president, George W. Bush, had
pulled out of a landmark global warming
agreement the previous administration
had championed.
The US position is not just awkward, it's
potentially bad for the environment,
scientists say.
Visitors make pictures inside the US
Climate Action Center at the COP 23 Fiji UN
Climate Change Conference in Bonn,
Germany on Nov. 9, 2017.
Most of the Bonn meeting will be
coming up with rules on how countries
report emissions of heat-trapping gases
and how transparent they are. The
United States used to be the leading
force in pushing for tougher rules and
more openness, Purvis and other experts
said. The rules probably won't be as
strong now, Purvis said.
"If it's left to Chinese leadership, which
is what's left, you will have less
transparency," said Massachusetts
Institute of Technology management
professor Henry Jacoby, who co-founded
the Joint Program on the Science and
Policy of Global Change.