Australia disagrees with Trump’s denial of climate change

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – Australia “disagrees” with US President Donald Trump on climate change, the country’s foreign minister said Wednesday after he dismissed global warming in a speech at the United Nations.

“The content of his speech is really the same sorts of things President Trump has been speaking about to the American people prior to his election and since,” Penny Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In his UN address, Trump called climate change science a “con job” and said countries were “going to hell.” He also mocked renewable energy, describing it as a joke that was destroying the free world. Trump is a longtime critic of the science of climate change, despite the overwhelming scientific consensus of the reality of the crisis.

Wong said the remarks were not unexpected but added that Australia’s response would be pragmatic.

“These are issues where President Trump has been very consistent, his position has been clear,” she said. “Australia does take a different view. We accept the reality of climate change.”

Australia – like many other countries, including the US - has faced record high temperatures and devastating wildfires in recent years, phenomena linked by scientists to the climate crisis.