The head of the United Nations body charged with addressing global warming wants to work with the Trump administration to bring the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement on climate change, she told TIME last week at an energy conference in Houston.
Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that she remains “hopeful” that Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement can be reversed before it becomes official in 2020.
“We are more than happy to engage with the U.S. administration in order to address their concerns,” Espinosa told TIME on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference hosted by IHS Markit. “There can be a reconsideration of this decision.”
Trump said last June that he would withdraw the U.S. from the landmark climate deal, calling it a drain on the American economy, but his decision cannot be made official until 2020 thanks to a waiting period on withdrawal included in the agreement.
At the helm of the UNFCCC, Espinosa oversees ongoing negotiations to implement the Paris Agreement and other international talks on global warming. She said that the details of those negotiations, which include development of detailed…
