In 2012, Donald Trump accused China of inventing global warming as a hoax, and the country ignored the claim for years, but now that he’ll running the U.S., a delegate is choosing to speak up. During United Nations talks on Wednesday in Morocco, China Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters that global warming isn’t a hoax, and Trump should remember that some of his Republican predecessors were aware of the increased greenhouse effect before China was.
The Donald’s stance on climate change has been in flux, with him calling for climate change action and then quickly flip-flopping on it. But here’s that 2012 tweet that shall forever live on in infamy.
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
China hasn’t forgotten. Liu commented that in the 1980’s, President Ronald Regan and George H.W. Bush were for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which began the talks:
“If you look at the history of climate change negotiations, actually it was initiated by the IPCC with the support of the Republicans during the Reagan and senior Bush administration during the late 1980s.”
Liu’s comments come as several countries are waiting to see if Trump will be pulling out of the Paris Agreement, which helps tackle climate change issues. CNN notes how Trump’s possible choice for Environmental Protection Agency head, Myron Ebell, is a noted climate change denier, which may give some insight into how he will deal with the issue. Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped with the Paris Agreement in 2015, said most Americans support climate change actions, and Trump should consider his actions carefully:
“No one has a right to make decisions for billions of people based solely on ideology. Climate change shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It isn’t a partisan issue for our military. It isn’t a partisan issue for our intelligence community.”
Liu echoes Kerry’s statements and added that U.S. climate change technologies are also an investment worth making.