The world seems not to have come to terms yet with the emergence of Donald Trump as the President-elect of the United States of America as businesses, diplomats, immigrants and lately environmentalists have continued to express fears over what is possible with a Trump presidency.
Views were held recently that a Trump Presidency could portend great danger to the widely-accepted Paris climate change agreement, which commits all parties to limit global temperature at 1.5 C in order to significantly reduce risks and impacts of climate change.
Fears have also been expressed that the emergency of Trump as the President-elect of the US could scuttle the climate change deal as he has never hidden his disdain for issues related to climate change, which he described during one of his campaigns as a “hoax”.
Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s Environment Minister has also expressed similar concerns about Trump, saying that the earlier he (Trump) understood that those things he said during the campaigns had no basis in reality, the better for the US and also for the global community.
According to the minister, evidences abound across the world to convince anyone that climate change is real. “We congratulate the American people for their process with democracy. That has really tested them. We are looking to see exactly what it is President-elect, Donald Trump, is going to do in reality.
“In his election campaign, he said a number of things that gave grave concern to governments around the world. You cannot say that climate change is not real today. Science has proven it, so also has the extent of human suffering and attendant loss of lives and valuable property, given credence to it.
“We can make those connections. This agreement has gone very far, we want US to be part of this because they will benefit as well as we”, she said, pointing out however, that if the US refused to be persuaded, the world would not wait. “It will not have effect if they don’t go the way they are supposed to go”, she assured.
She added, “I hope his rhetoric that we had in the campaign is where he begins to change and he faces realities and knows that much of it cannot be sustained in the reality of today. We are concerned, but we believe we can make him see the light.”
Lekan fadina, an environmentalist and climate change negotiator, says the issue of climate change being a global concern is reflected in the historic acceptance of the Paris Agreement, stressing that “it’s not a child’s play to say it is one of the greatest challenge of this generation.
“It is on record that never in the history of global diplomacy has a treaty been ratified and accepted by the whole world within one year. It shows how important, serious and the need to face its challenges. I honestly believe that there is a wide difference between politicking and governance and this point was underscored by the US President-elect when he said in his acceptance speech that he will be President of all Americans.
“l believe we should hold him to that statement because he has a responsibility to ensure and sustain the livelihood of the people who live in a world that is threatened by climate change and its attendant consequences”, he said.
