Climate Focus

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

As promised in yesterday's newsletter, today’s focus is about the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw from multiple climate-related United Nations treaties.

Last year, the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Agreement. This time, he listed 35 non-U.N. groups and 31 U.N. entities in a memo to senior administration officials.

One of the most important environmental accords the U.S. is pulling out of is the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, described by many as the "bedrock" climate treaty which is parent agreement to the 2015 Paris climate deal.

The U.S. also withdrew from the key UN scientific body on climate change called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. U.S. scientists played a key role in the IPCC's assessments.

Trump argues that those institutions "operate contrary to U.S. national interests" of focusing on oil, gas and mining development.

But some legal experts say that this decision may be illegal, adding that Congress would need to approve its exit as it was a decision by the U.S. Senate which unanimously adopted that climate treaty more than 30 years ago.

The U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said the move was a "colossal own goal which will leave the U.S. less secure and less prosperous," adding that the U.S. leaving these treaties at such a time is harmful to its economy and living standards "as wildfires, floods, mega-storms and droughts get rapidly worse."

The Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), a decades-old Pacific organisation for environmental protection, called for the U.S. to go through a formal process to withdraw its support of the international treaties.

The move also drew criticism from European officials as well as environmental groups.

Storm Goretti battered northern Europe on Friday, leaving hundreds of thousands of households without power.

In France, some 380,000 households lost power, mostly in the Normandy region and in Brittany, the Enedis power provider said. In Britain, 57,000 homes were without power, according to the National Grid, after Storm Goretti brought more snow to the country following a week of freezing weather.

Michael clears snow from his front yard, after Storm Goretti's arrival amid a week of plunging temperatures, in Dove Holes, Britain. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja

The Australian state of Victoria has been battling with out-of-control bushfires this week, which have left three people unaccounted for as they destroyed homes and swathes of bushland.

Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch told a news conference that firefighters were battling 30 active blazes, with the state's fire danger rating on Friday at "catastrophic", the highest level.

The Western Balkan countries have seen disruption from snow and other winter weather since the weekend, with the closure of roads and railway lines, power cuts and drinking water affected.

A 55-year-old municipal worker who went missing on Tuesday was found dead in a drainage canal in the Albanian city of Durres on Thursday, probably swept away by the current, according to the interior ministry.

India's Enforcement Directorate searched the home of Harjeet Singh and his wife Jyoti Awasthi, who run environmental NGO Satat Sampada (Nature Forever).

The couple – environmental activists working on an effort to coordinate a global treaty to phase out fossil fuels – were detained then released by Indian authorities as part of the investigation into "suspicious foreign inward remittances" received by the organization to promote the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty within India, Indian officials said in a statement.

South Africa's trade minister Parks Tau said in a government notice seen by Reuters that the country will soften its anti-trust regulations to allow firms battling high power costs to jointly build energy infrastructure and collectively negotiate supply contracts.

Electricity costs in South Africa have soared by more than 900% since 2008, the country's Minerals Council says.

It’s been a pretty rough start to the year, so here’s a video on polar bears playing in snow for the first time in their lives in Hungary's Nyiregyhaza animal park for you to enjoy wherever you are based. May it bring you as much joy as it did for me.

This week, the United States has made headlines in its aim to safeguard critical resources such as rare earths in Greenland and oil in Venezuela. In keeping with that theme, today’s Climate Lens focuses on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s minerals. 

The African nation has suspended artisanal copper and cobalt mineral processing, according to a decree seen by Reuters. The move is an effort to improve transparency and prevent illegal exports, a pervasive problem in the mineral-rich nation.