The chair of the government’s backbench committee on environment and energy, Craig Kelly, repeated on Wednesday his earlier predictions that the Paris climate deal was “cactus” if the US President followed through with his threat to withdraw from the treaty.
President Trump signed a new “energy independence” executive order on Tuesday to undo a range of regulatory measures to combat climate change by his predecessor Barack Obama, including eliminating the clean power plan, which sets limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that power plants emit.
Mr Trump said his plan would launch “a new energy revolution” that will put “miners back to work”.
While the executive order does not withdraw the US from the Paris agreement, the possibility remains open amid reports the Trump administration has yet to decide whether it intends to withdraw from the international climate change deal
Mr Kelly told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that he was aware of the new executive order, and if President Trump went the extra step and withdrew from the Paris agreement: “I think we have to review it.”……..
Asked whether a majority of his Coalition colleagues would be in favour of quitting the Paris deal in the event Mr Trump pulled out, Mr Kelly argued “it would be a close-run thing”….. http://www.afr.com/news/politics/australia-will-not-d
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