Donald Trump ‘set to pull out of Paris Agreement within days’

First it was immigrants, now Donald Trump has a much bigger global target in sight as the US looks set to switch course on climate change.

Myron Ebell, who headed US President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team until his inauguration, said the US would pull out of the Paris agreement.

Mr Trump, a climate change doubter, campaigned on a pledge to boost the US oil and gas drilling and coal mining industries by slashing regulation.

He had promised to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement which aims to curb global warming.

Mr Ebell said the President was determined to undo the policies of his predecessor, The Independent reported.

“I expect Donald Trump to be very assiduous in keeping his promises, despite all of the flak he is going to get from his opponents,” he said during a briefing in London.

“He could do it by executive order tomorrow, or he could wait and do it as part of a larger package. There are multiple ways and I have no idea of the timing.”

The agreement, adopted by 194 countries last December, is a successor to the Kyoto Protocols.

Just two weeks after he won the US election, Mr Trump said he had an “open mind” on the climate deal.

Mr Trump has previously called climate change a hoax created by China and has repeatedly questioned the science around it.

Mr Ebell, who helped guide the EPA’s transition after Mr Trump was elected in November until he was sworn in on January 20, said it was difficult to predict the timing of any action because government departments are still in transition.

Mr Ebell is Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.

Mr Trump appointed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has led 14 lawsuits against the EPA, as the agency’s administrator, although a vote on his nomination has not been scheduled.

BUDGET CUTS

The news that Mr Trump is expected to pull out of the climate deal comes as his former adviser warned the president is likely to seek significant reductions to the agency’s workforce — currently about 15,000 employees nationwide.

Mr Ebell, who left the transition team last week, declined to discuss specific numbers but said slashing the agency’s size by about half would be a good start.

“Let’s aim for half and see how it works out, and then maybe we’ll want to go further,” said Mr Ebell, who has returned to his position as director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The conservative think tank in Washington opposes “global-warming alarmism” and receives a portion of its funding from corporations and individuals that profit from the continued burning of fossil fuels.

Mr Ebell has long been a vocal critic of federal environmental regulations, which he claims are strangling the nation’s economy and impeding job growth.

The EPA has been roiled by turmoil during its first week under Mr Trump, as members of the transition team issued what it has described as a temporary freeze on all contract approvals and grant awards.

Mr Trump’s representatives also instituted a media blackout, clamping down on media releases, social media posts and other external communications issued by career staff.

— with staff writers