COP22 delegates await Trump's move on climate change

Heads of state will this week join delegates and negotiators at the ongoing climate change summit in the Moroccan city of Marrakech.

Whiles the meeting this week is expected to fine tune the implementation of the Paris agreement which came into force on November 4, there is concern also about further US involvement in the fight against global warming.

Morocco’s Environment Minister Hakima el Haite though worried, is equally confident the Americans will continue to contribute to the climate change agenda.

“I think that even if the Americans revise their position, I think that the competition worldwide will push them to change their position,” she told AFP.

US president-elect Donald Trump has said climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, a statement that has left campaigners worried.

But el Haite said that statement came from “candidate Trump and we didn’t hear yet the President Trump. And we are waiting for him.”

The United States, one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, has been actively involved in the fight against global warming.

But with Donald Trump’s denial of climate change, there are fears America’s involvement in the fight against the phenomenon will come to an end once he assumes office in January.