President-elect Trump could roll back Obama’s environmental legacy

World Today

President-elect Trump could roll back Obama's environmental legacy

In about two months, the U.S. government will officially complete its transition from one president to the next.

So what will happen to President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy? CCTV America’s Jessica Stone reports.

The top environmentalist in the U.S. government said she’s proud of new protections and policies enacted under President Barack Obama.

“We are in a spectacularly different place today than we were when President Obama took office. Before, developing countries would point a finger at us. Now, they’re wondering if the U.S. will turn its back on science and be left behind,” Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator said.

Left behind, because the next U.S. president Donald Trump has vowed to roll back key environmental regulations like the U.S. Clean Power Plan and the Paris Climate Agreement and aimed at combating global warming.

He’s also put Myron Ebbel in charge of finding the next environmental leader in a Trump administration. Ebbel believes climate change is a political movement not a scientific fact.

And Trump has promised to bring back jobs in America’s coal country. But with nearly 200 countries in the Paris Climate Agreement pledging to lower carbon emissions what can Donald Trump do to unravel the deal? For a start, he can change the domestic regulations that help the U.S. meet its Paris commitments but even then, he has to wait four years to fully withdraw.

Environmentalists are now counting on pressure from those companies and local governments to keep up the momentum on emissions reductions whether in the U.S.

A point EPA Chief McCarthy emphasized when she said, “Our clean energy future is bigger than any one person or nation.”