According to The Independent, actor and environmentalist, Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t mince his words during an encounter with Donald Trump. In an attempt to encourage Mr Trump to see the opportunity to make nature great again, DiCaprio tried to sway him to take another look at the Paris Climate Agreement.

Reverting to type, Trump claimed that the Paris Agreement was ‘unfair’ to the American worker as it focused primarily on coal, steel and manufacturing. Yes, I (Simon H King) imagine it does focus on these as – from nature’s perspective – they’re changing the climate and many animals cannot adapt to these changes in the time and space they have and, therefore, they will not survive. Whereas some of these industries can be replaced with ‘green jobs’ which was DiCaprio’s point, I imagine.

‘Changes in temperature can mix up signals (for wildlife) that trigger events like migration and reproduction, causing them to happen at the wrong time,’ reports WWF in the Living Planet Report 2016. Does Mr Trump see these changes as ‘unfair’ to wildlife or is it capitalism crushing creation in a sour-faced game of rock, paper, scissors?

Is the agreement ‘unfair’ or, is Donald Trump afraid of the ‘enhanced transparency of action’ required to combat climate change?

Paris Agreement: essential elements

The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.

When Trump announced his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in June he turned his back on wildlife. I hope the (independent) scientific warnings will force him to backtrack, but I am not holding my breath…