Trump may be turning his back on the world, but America isn't

By Ishaan Tharoor November 20 at 1:00 AM



Last week in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, the most unwelcome attendees at a U.N. summit on climate policy may have been the members of the delegation representing the Trump administration. President Trump, after all, made a great show of his opposition to the landmark Paris climate accord — one of the linchpins of his predecessor's political legacy — by announcing his country's withdrawal from the pact in June.

Trump's energy adviser, George D. Banks, promoted coal and other fossil fuels at a panel event swarmed by protesters. As he attempted to explain his boss's doubts about global warming, he trotted out lines of reasoning that one analyst deemed "zombie arguments from the 1990s and 2000s."

Meanwhile, an unofficial and dramatically different American delegation was making its presence felt. A number of prominent Democratic senators made the trip to affirm their commitment to the ongoing negotiations. Other big names, including leading business executives and California Gov. Jerry Brown, showed up and emphasized their desire to curb carbon pollution, no matter what the president says. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, a committed advocate for climate action, pitched in for a swanky pavilion that declared "We are still in!"

"We are here because it’s our responsibility to be part of the global community," said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) last week. "We’re here because it’s in our national security interests to deal with climate change." Bloomberg directly mocked the administration's climate stance: "Promoting coal at a climate summit is like promoting tobacco at a cancer summit," he joked.

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