White House: Climate change won’t be on agenda when Trump hosts G-7

Climate change will not be on the agenda at next year’s Group of Seven (G-7) summit hosted by the United States, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday.

Mulvaney announced that Trump National Doral near Miami would host the gathering of world leaders from June 10-12, 2020.

“Climate change will not be on the agenda,” Mulvaney said when asked whether the topic would be on the docket for the summit.

{mosads}Doral is located just outside Miami, a city which is expected to face acute consequences from the warming planet. Rising sea levels have led to increased flooding there, and consistently hotter temperatures will mean that the June summit will likely take place in scorching conditions.

The issue of climate change has divided Trump and the other G-7 leaders. He has characterized it as a hoax and cast doubt on government reports warning about the severe effects of a warming planet.

Climate change was a central focus of this year’s G-7 in Biarritz, France. Trump was absent from a session on climate, biodiversity and oceans attended by the heads of government of the other six nations that make up the G-7.

He insisted later at the summit that he’s an “environmentalist,” but that he did not want to endanger the U.S. economy over environmental concerns.

Trump also left the 2018 G-7 summit in Canada early and missed a session on climate change and clean energy as a result.