00:00The next item here is the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty.
00:04I think it's pretty clear now that the Trump administration will have significant impacts
00:09on global progress on climate change.
00:11This will happen in many different ways and perhaps will be more significant than the
00:15first Trump administration.
00:17More significant because in that time frame, the US was only out of the Paris Agreement
00:24for around four months because of the way the Paris Agreement worked.
00:28This time around, it's going to be at least three years and one month.
00:31So there's a lot more time to have impact on those international negotiations.
00:35Secondly, the US is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases globally.
00:40And so if it accelerates the use of fossil fuel, takes its foot off the brake on the
00:44use of fossil fuel, it means that that big emitter is going to be bigger than it would
00:49otherwise have been.
00:51So reversing or slowing down that trend to reducing emissions that the US has had over
00:56the last decade or more.
00:58It's also going to send a green light to countries and others who are wavering about climate
01:04action, thinking maybe it's too expensive or too difficult, and so they'd prefer not
01:08do it.
01:09And this clearly sends a green light to those people in those countries.
01:14It also is going to impact on investment.
01:15So the previous Biden administration's massive investment in terms of green technology has
01:22the potential to be pulled back.
01:24And that's investment in green tech that could go globally to reduce those greenhouse
01:28gas emissions, but still provide the services that we want.
01:33And lastly, of course, there's a science underpinning that is under threat right now.
01:38So threats to NOAA, to their weather service, to NASA and other science institutions could
01:47significantly reduce the global capability to deal with climate change.
01:51And this is happening at the same time as the footprint of climate change on the US
01:56is increasing year by year.
01:58The number of more than $1 billion damage events happening in the US alone, last year
02:04it was 27.
02:06So it's happening almost every fortnight, there's a billion dollar often weather-related
02:11damage event happening in the US.
02:13That has a huge impact on the people, on the economy, and on the politics of the place.
02:17We need science as one way of dealing with those events, getting good weather forecasts,
02:24being prepared more effectively, and it doesn't seem like very sensible activity to be reducing
02:29that capability at the same time that we need more of it.
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