UN leaders brace for change in US climate policy under Trump admin

World leaders at the United Nations climate summit are concerned about how President-elect Donald Trump’s second term might impact global climate change initiatives, as the US and other countries sought to reassure participants that their commitment to combating climate change remains steadfast.

The summit, held this week in Azerbaijan, highlighted global apprehension due to Trump’s promises to distance the US from international climate agreements, like the Paris Climate Accord, and reduce climate legislation spearheaded by President Joe Biden. Compared to 2016, when Trump’s victory came as a surprise, many delegates this time seemed braced for potential policy reversals.

Canada’s former climate minister, Catherine McKenna, remarked, “We have seen this story,” referring to Trump’s past withdrawal from climate commitments when he took office for his first term. Similarly, Biden’s climate envoy, John Podesta, emphasized the enduring commitment of the US to tackle climate change regardless of Trump’s presidency, saying, “Facts are still facts. Science is still science.”

“The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country,” Podesta told reporters.

Trump, who has pushed for expanded fossil fuel production to bolster economic growth, has consistently clashed with climate activists over his energy policies. A representative for Trump’s transition team highlighted his campaign mandate to implement energy independence strategies.

According to Politico, Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for Trump’s transition team, said in an email that, “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail.”

An anonymous UK government official also told Politico, “The one thing they can argue is Trump pulled out of Paris first time around — and look where we are now. A lot is riding on whether Republicans see the value of IRA investments in their states.”

During his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accord as Republicans criticized it for allowing countries to set their own nonbinding targets with minimal enforcement mechanisms. The GOP argued it would disproportionately harm the US economy while letting other nations, such as China, gain a competitive advantage. Biden’s administration later rejoined the accord, but with Trump set to reassume office, questions arise about a potential shift away from international commitments and what it means for global climate cooperation.

Despite vocal concerns by other leaders, it appears that European leaders are planning to rely on the US to increase its energy supply. Immediately after Trump’s electoral victory, EU President Ursula von der Leyen revealed she told the President-elect that the bloc would be willing to purchase more US liquified natural gas to decrease dependence on Russian energy.

This Story originally came from humanevents.com

zerohedge
Economics , News , Politics , Science
November 21, 2024
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Chinese Agent Who Tried To Bribe IRS Against Shen Yun Sentenced To 20 Months in Prison

Authored by Eva Fu and Cara Ding via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Chinese agent who tried to bribe the IRS and manipulate the agency into advancing Beijing’s transnational repression of a U.S. nonprofit has received a 20-month prison sentence.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in White Plains on Jov. 19, 2024. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

U.S. citizen John Chen, 72, was a principal actor in a $50,000 bribery scheme under the direction of a Chinese intelligence official to revoke the nonprofit status of New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts.

Shen Yun has long been on the Chinese regime’s target list. Founded in 2006, the company tours around the world to display the ancient Chinese culture that prevailed before the communist takeover of China, while highlighting the human rights abuses under the regime’s rule. It has often drawn attention to the ongoing persecution of the meditation group Falun Gong.

Chen pleaded guilty in July after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. He has spent the 16 months since his arrest in May 2023 in detention, and he will spend another four months in federal custody.

He will also forfeit $50,000 and face three years of supervised release after serving the full prison term.

For several months in 2023, Chen had been trying to move a fraudulent whistleblower complaint to help the Chinese Communist Party “topple” Falun Gong, according to court documents. Prosecutors said the whistleblower complaint was “facially deficient” and invoked propaganda rhetoric typical of Chinese authorities.

During those conversations, Chen emphasized that Chinese leadership was “very generous” in financial support for the plan, according to the court filing.

“After this-this-this thing is done,” the court document quoted Chen as saying, “reward for work will surely be given at that time.”

Chen and another co-conspirator, Lin Feng, who served 16 months of detention, paid $5,000 cash bribes to an undercover agent posing as an IRS agent. They promised an additional $50,000 for opening an investigation along with 60 percent of any awards from the complaint if it went through.

It was “a significant bribe,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard said at the sentencing hearing. He noted that the undercover officer didn’t specify an amount.

*John Chen (L) poses for a photo at an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of Chinese communist rule in Beijing in 2019. Department of Justice*

“The defendant chose the amount,” he said.

Both Chen and Lin had traveled to Orange County in upstate New York, where Shen Yun is based, to surveil Falun Gong practitioners there, according to a court filing.

Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the sentencing was a reminder that “the U.S. justice system will hold accountable those who attempt to engage in malicious transnational repression on American soil.”

“John Chen aligned himself with the PRC government and its goals to harass and intimidate the Falun Gong, a long-standing target of PRC repression. In doing so, Chen boldly attempted to bribe an individual he believed to be an IRS agent to corrupt the administration of the U.S. tax code and pervert the IRS whistleblower program,” he said in a statement on Nov. 19. “This Office will not tolerate efforts like this to repress free speech by targeting critics of the PRC in the United States.”

*U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams addresses the media in New York City on Nov. 2, 2023. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images*

Both Chen’s son and his lawyer declined to comment after walking out of the courtroom.

While Chen’s son, three China-based siblings, two ex-wives, and fiancée have all written letters asking for leniency and describing him as a man who loves the United States, the prosecutors disagreed.

In a Nov. 5 memo, they argued that a 30-month prison sentence—the longest under the sentencing guideline—would be appropriate because of the seriousness of the case and the need to deter criminal conduct, “particularly in cases of a foreign power’s repression of a disfavored group within the borders of the United States.”

“The defendant has no mitigating motives or external factors justifying his offense,” the prosecutors wrote, noting that Chen was “not motivated by poverty” and that there was no evidence of Chinese officials’ pressure.

*The curtain call for Shen Yun Performing Arts at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City on Jan 11, 2015. Larry Dai/Epoch Times*

Prosecutors noted that Chen had repeatedly referred to Chinese officials as his “friends” and that during the bribery scheme, he “called them ‘blood brothers,’ and described how ‘we’—Chen and his PRC Government friends—‘started this fight’ against the founder of the Falun Gong ‘twenty, thirty years ago.’”

The memo displayed photos obtained from Chen’s electronic devices and online accounts showing him at a major military parade in Beijing celebrating the 70th anniversary of Chinese communist rule in 2019. Another photo showed Chen shaking hands with communist leader Xi Jinping.

“Chen was extraordinarily proud of his history with the PRC Government and, in particular, his meeting with Xi,” the memo states, citing a recorded call in which he bragged that he had “climbed, climbed, climbed to this position,” and that “Uncle Xi” met him “three times in 10 years.”

Chen had also featured those three meetings, along with a photo, in a 2020 digital résumé, according to the memo.

Chen was aligned with the Chinese authorities in suppressing Falun Gong and “acted as a full-fledged and enthusiastic participant in the crimes,” the prosecutors said.

“It was his fight,” Lockard said at the sentencing hearing, adding that Chen had tried to use the freedoms he enjoyed in the United States to undermine the country.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/21/2024 – 23:25

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UN leaders brace for change in US climate policy under Trump admin

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