Guest essay by Eric Worrall

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa has complained in public that Rex Tillerson, President Trump’s Secretary of State, hasn’t responded to her request for a meeting.

UN Climate Chief’s Request to Meet Tillerson Goes Unanswered

by Joe Ryan

2 March 2017, 12:31 GMT+10 3 March 2017, 04:21 GMT+10

The top United Nations climate change official continues to wait for a response to her request to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson over whether the U.S. will remain in the landmark Paris environmental accord.

Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, asked for a sitdown with Tillerson before leaving for a visit to the U.S. this week. In an interview Wednesday, she said she’d heard nothing from the State Department in return.

“I have not heard back. It is understandable at the beginning of an administration,’’ Espinosa said after speaking at a climate change conference in Chicago “They are a very important partner to us, and I’m looking forward to working together.’’

A State Department spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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“It is unfortunate that Secretary Tillerson was unwilling to meet with Executive Secretary Espinosa,” Alden Meyer, director of policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in an emailed statement Thursday. “Climate change represents a clear and present danger to the prosperity, security and quality of life of all Americans, and threatens the development prospects and stability of other countries. Addressing the climate threat is thus mission-critical for Secretary Tillerson and his State Department.”

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