Climate protectionists worldwide fear that the US will leave the UN framework agreement under Trump - that would be a fatal signal.
For Trump, climate change is "an invention" from China. He wants to annul the agreement concluded in Paris in 2015.
Under Obama, the US was one of the biggest donors: without their aid, many developing countries would also drop.
Why this is important:
For the first time in years, climate diplomacy had once again been a success in Paris. But without the money and the influence of the US threatens a dramatic setback.

Donald Trump has never made a secret of his opposition to climate protection policy: "It is an invention of the Chinese," he once said. Long before his election to the US President Trump had announced that he would withdraw from the climate treaties concluded in 2015 by the United Nations in Paris.

It is no wonder that the news of his surprising election victory at the current World Conference on Climate Change in Morocco hit a bomb.

The fact that the conference did not immediately sink completely into depression was probably due to a misinformation of many delegates and press representatives. In Marrakech, reference was made to Article 28 of the Paris Climate Agreement, whereby the contracting states are only allowed to leave the UN agreement on decarbonisation after a total of four years .

Trump would get out faster than thought

A lot can happen in four years. In four years, Trump can learn a lot, perhaps even change his mind - this hope might have been a little more in the words of Patricia Espinosa Cantellano. The Secretary-General of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change congratulated Trump from Marrakech on the election and declared: "We are pleased to work with your administration to develop the climate protection agenda for the benefit of all people on the planet."

This sounded like a whistle in the wood - and it was probably. The contracting parties among the climate protection experts soon pointed out that Trump must by no means adhere to the four-year deadline of the Paris World Climate Treaty: the often-read or ignored paragraph 3 of Article 28 of the Paris Treaty states: Each contracting party, which withdraws from the framework agreement, thus also withdraws from this agreement. "

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992 in the Trumps hometown of New York, is the overall agreement, according to which the annual World Climate Conference is organized and all international treaties are organized. Stupid only: Each state can only get out of the UN framework convention one year after the announcement.

USA were among the largest donors

Thus, if Trump was to declare the withdrawal of the US from global climate protection immediately on January 20, 2017, twelve months later, it would end with all commitments and payments. "Remember 20 January 2018 as the earliest opportunity for Donald Trump to take the United States from the climate deal in Paris," warned Karl Mathiesen from the "Climate Home" information portal in Marrakech.

This would be a disaster for international climate diplomacy. The fact that the two largest CO2 issuers in the world were the first to agree to a global climate protection agreement last year was largely due to the Obama administration, which had agreed bilaterally with Beijing on a joint strategy.

It is true that China, which is suffering from air pollution, would still be able to protect the climate even if the US was no longer part of it. However, the chances of effective global agreements would be extremely shrinking: in almost all UN conferences on climate protection, the approval of many developing and newly industrializing countries on CO2 mitigation plans had been bought with lavish financial commitments by industrialized countries. And the US has always been one of the largest donors.

One of the most important priorities of Barack Obama

Since the failed climatic climate in Copenhagen in 2009, the US has quadrupled its financial climate aid for emerging and developing countries. In the years 2010 to 2015, Washington released $ 15.6 billion, according to a report from the State Department.

In addition, the US donated around $ 3 billion for the Green Climate Fund in 2014 to help mitigate climate change and mitigate climate change in the poorest developing countries, making the US the largest single donor.

Barack Obama, whose 2009 presidency had started in the year of the failed Copenhagen summit, has been one of his "most important priorities to mobilize public and private finance for climate protection".

Setback would hardly be catch up again

The Paris Treaty of 2015 only came about because the threshold and developing countries had already been promised in Copenhagen that they would receive an annual aid of $ 100 billion from 2020 for climate protection measures from the industrialized countries. And in Paris it was clear that the money could actually come together. As early as 2013 and 2014, the USA was one of the largest donor countries for this pot, with 2.7 billion dollars each.

If, however, during the Trump presidency, the flow of money from the US, the willingness and ability of many financially weak countries to reduce their commitments to reducing CO2 emissions is likely to ease. Many countries continue to rely on cheap coal and subsidized gasoline, and can only be persuaded to invest more in renewable energies through financial incentives and aid from the industrialized countries.

It is doubtful whether the possible abolishing resources of the USA could be taken over by other states. For the first time, international climate diplomacy has enjoyed success again. But without the money and the political influence of the US threats to global climate protection a dramatic setback, which will hardly be able to catch up again.