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EU Ready to Resist Trump on Climate as Kerry Offers Assurance

  • Europe to stick to its 2030 target to cut carbon at least 40%
  • Kerry says ‘no one has a right’ to risk the fate of billions
US Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a speech at the COP22 climate change conference on Nov. 16.

US Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a speech at the COP22 climate change conference on Nov. 16.

Photographer: AFP via Getty Images
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Unswayed by Donald Trump’s election in the U.S., the European Union is prepared to move ahead on its climate change promises even if the president elect reneges on his country’s side of the bargain.

“We have already cooperated with President George Bush Jr., which was difficult, but we didn’t stop,” said Peter Zapfel, head of the European Commission’s emissions trading unit in Brussels. “We have predictability in Europe. We have already agreed our 2030 targets.”