Protesters disrupt US panel's fossil fuels pitch at climate talks

A Trump administration presentation extolling the virtues of fossil fuels at the UN climate talks in Poland has been met with guffaws of laughter and chants of “Shame on you”.

Monday’s protest came during a panel discussion by the official US delegation, which used its only public appearance to promote the “unapologetic utilisation” of coal, oil and gas. Although these industries are the main source of the carbon emissions that are causing global warming, the speakers boasted the US would expand production for the sake of global energy security and planned a new fleet of coal plants with technology it hoped to export to other countries.

The event featured prominent cheerleaders for fossil fuels and nuclear power, including Wells Griffith, Donald Trump’s adviser on global energy and climate, Steve Winberg, the assistant secretary for fossil energy at the energy department, and Rich Powell, the executive director of the ClearPath Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on “conservative clean energy”. The only non-American was Patrick Suckling, the ambassador for the environment in Australia’s coal-enthusiast government.

None of the US participants mentioned climate change or global warming, focusing instead of “innovation and entrepreneurship” in the technological development of nuclear power, “clean coal” and carbon capture and storage.

Ten minutes into Griffith’s opening speech, he was interrupted by a sudden, sustained, loud volley of laughter by several dozen protesters that was then followed by a single shout of “It’s not funny”, and then a series of chants of “Keep it in the ground” and “Shame on you”.

Several campaigners read statements. “There is no such thing as clean coal. Coal is deadly from the beginning to the end. They talk about the life cycle of coal, I talk about it as a death march. My father died of black lung, and I am in this struggle with others whose fathers and husbands are dying of black lung right now,” said Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, which represents Appalachian coal workers in North America.

After the protesters were led away by security guards, Griffiths said: “In the US our policy is not to keep it in the ground, but to use it as cleanly and efficiently as possible”.

This statement was contradicted by climate analysts, who noted the US environment agency estimates that 1,400 more deaths per year will result from Trump’s proposal to replace the Clean Power Act.

“It’s ludicrous for Trump officials to claim that they want to clean up fossil fuels, while dismantling standards that would do just that,” said Dan Lashof, the director of the World Resources Institute. “Since taking office, this administration has proposed to roll back measures to cut methane leaks from oil and gas operations, made it easier for companies to dump coal ash into drinking water, and just days ago proposed easing carbon pollution rules for new coal-fired power plants.”

Griffith boasted the US had the largest coal reserves in the world and iwas producing more petroleum than ever. “To achieve economic growth and eradicate poverty, all energy uses are important and they will be utilised unapologetically,” he said.

Echoing a claim often made by Trump, Griffiths said the US would not be subject to agreements that hamstrung domestic growth, while allowing China to operate with high emissions.

This was the second consecutive year that the Trump team was heckled after promoting fossil fuels and nuclear power at the climate talks, underscoring how the US position has shifted since the president took power in 2017.

The US was a key player in forging the Paris agreement in 2015, but its standing has steadily eroded since. In 2017, Trump announced he would pull the US out of the global accord. This year, his representatives have taken a still more destructive stance by aligning with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to try to downgrade a key report by the world’s scientists that warned of the dangers of global warming moving beyond 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

None of the panelists would be drawn on the study, but Griffith spoke out against “alarmism” that, he claimed, displaced pragmatic solutions to address environmental concerns with prescriptive regulations that put jobs at risk and raised costs for consumers. In fact, scientists say their forecasts about climate impacts have been too conservative, while economists say the shift to renewables has resulted in cheaper energy for many users.

Winberg said the US government was planning to support a new fleet of small, modular coal plants that he claimed would be energy-efficient and have near-zero emissions if combined with carbon capture technology. After initial development in the US, he said they could be exported to other countries. “They offer opportunity for developing nations to access tomorrow’s coal technology to improve energy security,” he said. He also proposed more pipelines to oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite this public commitment, the US use of coal is declining because renewables are cheaper, according to Nathaniel Keohane, the senior vice-president for the Environmental Defense Fund nonprofit group.

“Trump is playing politics, but it’s not changing the facts on the ground,” he said. “Coal usage in the US just hit a 39-year low. If we really want to protect our economy, we’ll move aggressively toward 100% clean energy.”

An alternative, non-official US delegation has backed a faster transition to renewables. Made up of city- and state-level governments, business executives and religious leaders, the “We’re still in” group is staging dozens of events in a bid to show action is still possible without White House support.

Nonetheless, many observers at the official US panel were ashamed at the position of their federal government. “I was completely embarrassed to be an American”, said Leo McNeil Woodberry of the Climate Action Network. “Everything they proposed was absolutely wrong. I can’t believe they are putting profits over the planet, and profits over people.”