National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula on Wednesday slammed former United States President Donald Trump over his past remarks on the Paris Climate Agreement adopted in 2016.
Speaking during a session at Parliament Buildings on Wednesday, Speaker Wetang'ula faulted the former American President, saying the United States should be at the forefront of leading Climate Change initiatives since it is one of the largest carbon emitters in the world.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) data shows that the US is the second largest carbon emitter in the world behind China having emitted 6,297.62 million tonnes of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) in 2018 compared to China's 13,739.79 million tonnes.
Wetang'ula in particular, took issue with Trump's infamous declaration where the former Head of State dismissed Climate Change 'a hoax' manufactured by China and questioned why the Republican reversed most of the gains that his predecessor, Barrack Obama, had achieved.
"President Trump who embarked on reversing literary everything that Obama had done called the Paris Agreement a mischievous fraud and threw it through the window" said Wetangula.
Speaker Wetangula also proclaimed that Africa has borne the brunt of the effects of the climate change while developed countries have not done enough to mitigate the risks despite being the biggest contributors to the problem.
"Where we give them our raw materials and take back finished products at times ten, twenty times their original cost," added Wetangula.
The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, was adopted by 196 parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on December 12, 2015.
Parties in the agreement achieved a consensus to combat climate change and enhance efforts and investments for low carbon emissions in the future, with the United States playing a key role.
In June 2017, Trump announced the United States withdrawal from the accord saying that his country was getting a raw deal.
His Predecessor Barack Obama led the United States into the agreement. Part of the initiatives that Obama took was to make sure that the US would remain committed to playing its part even after change of power.
Nonetheless, the US became the first country to exit the agreement with Trump saying commitment to the accord would hurt his country's competitiveness.
According to UNEP's data, the United States accounts for 12.7% of the world's carbon emissions, behind China (27.8%) and ahead of India (7.3%), Russia (4.7%) and Japan (2.7%).
