The Department of Energy's Office of International Climate and Clean Energy has been directed not to use the phrases "climate change," "emissions reduction," and "Paris Agreement" in any official written communications, per Politico.
The office is the only one with "climate" in its name at the Department of Energy and is an artifact of the Obama administration's clean energy initiatives, which have been largely cast aside under President Trump.
A Department of Energy spokesperson denied there was a formal ban on language, but one of Politico's sources said their office had consciously been choosing to use words like "jobs" and "infrastructure" to better represent the Trump administration's priorities.
The Chinese government said it is moving forward with its promise to pull back on carbon emissions following the signing of Trump's executive order that rolls back Obama-era climate change policy, per AP.
A foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said Wednesday that curbing climate change is a "challenge faced by all mankind" and reiterated that Beijing was committed to following through on its pledges under the Paris agreement.
It's finally here! Almost. Tuesday afternoon President Trump will visit EPA to sign a long-awaited executive order that aims to unwind huge swaths of Obama-era climate change policy.
Why it matters: The order is the clearest sign yet of how aggressively Trump wants to attack his predecessor's regulations on fossil fuel development and coal-fired power generation, which Republicans call economically burdensome. According to the White House, the order will do all this stuff:
