by WorldTribune Staff, February 24, 2017

The Trump administration should pull out of the UN’s climate change agency and other accords that “are not scientifically justified,” a group of scientists said.

In a Feb. 23 letter to President Donald Trump, MIT professor emeritus Richard Lindzen called on the United States and other nations to “change course on an outdated international agreement that targets minor greenhouse gases,” starting with carbon dioxide.

“Since 2009, the U.S. and other governments have undertaken actions with respect to global climate that are not scientifically justified and that already have, and will continue to cause serious social and economic harm — with no environmental benefits,” said Lindzen, a prominent atmospheric physicist.

Some 300 scientists signed a petition attached to the letter, including U.S. and international atmospheric scientists, meteorologists, physicists, professors and others taking issue with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC], which was formed in 1992 to combat “dangerous” climate change, The Washington Times reported on Feb. 23.

The 2016 Paris climate accord, which sets nonbinding emissions goals for nations, was drawn up under the auspices of the UNFCCC.

“Observations since the UNFCCC was written 25 years ago show that warming from increased atmospheric CO2 will be benign — much less than initial model predictions,” says the petition.

Challenging the catastrophic climate change narrative, Lindzen describes carbon dioxide as “plant food, not poison. Restricting access to fossil fuels has very negative effects upon the well-being of people around the world,” he said in the letter. “It condemns over 4 billion people in still underdeveloped countries to continued poverty.”

During the campaign, Trump vowed to “cancel” U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement, which was ratified in September by former President Barack Obama over the objections of Senate Republicans, who argued that the accord requires Senate ratification under the U.S. Constitution.

Myron Ebell, a Competitive Enterprise Institute scholar who led the Trump transition team on the Environmental Protection Agency, told reporters last month in London that the president would pull out of the Paris Agreement.

Advocates for climate change policies have called for Trump to honor the agreement, under which nations agree to enact policies to keep the increase in global temperatures this century under 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

“Failure to build a low-carbon economy puts American prosperity at risk. But the right action now will create jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness,” said a statement on LowCarbonUSA.org. “We pledge to do our part, in our own operations and beyond, to realize the Paris Agreement’s commitment of a global economy that limits global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius.”

  MIT professor emeritus Richard Lindzen, Paris Agreement, Top scientists call for Trump to withdraw from UN climate change agency, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, WorldTribune.com