One of the biggest concerns that emerged with the election of Donald Trump as the US President — of that country potentially withdrawing from its commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change — is coming to the fore.

Trump signed an executive order on ‘Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth’, effectively undoing the Clean Power Plan introduced by former President Barack Obama.

The move could potentially derail the Paris Agreement, which came into force on November 4, just a couple of days before the presidential election. The executive order is aimed at increasing coal production and consumption in the US, besides other fossil fuel resources such as shale oil and gas.

“With the new Executive Order and the budget proposal, Trump has shown that he does not believe in climate change and has decided to go back on his nation’s international commitments to reduce emissions and provide funding. The US, being the top historical polluter, should have been raising the ambition to address climate change. The Trump administration has instead attacked former President Obama’s climate action plan, vowed to make coal competitive and put fossil fuel-based economy on the top of its agenda,” said Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, Centre for Science and Environment.

Days before Trump took charge, the Obama administration sent $500 million to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which the current President has refused to contribute to.

Developing and least developed countries are expected to receive $100 billion from the GCF annually starting 2020 to help them adapt to climate change and adopt clean energy technologies going forward to mitigate climate change.

The GCF has been a key ingredient to the Paris Agreement, and without adequate financial inputs, the agreement is expected to fail.

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