Ivanka Trump and EPA chief set to meet over the Paris climate agreement

pulse

May 4, 2017 11:02 PM

Scott Pruitt has been adamant about abandoning the Paris climate agreement, but Ivanka Trump disagrees.

Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump plans to privately meet with EPA chief Scott Pruitt next Tuesday to discuss the Paris climate agreement.

The meeting will take place just hours before a larger White House meeting about the fate of the US' participation in the global environmental pact, Axios reported.

Pruitt has repeatedly called for the US to exit the Paris agreement, calling it "a bad deal for this country." Ivanka Trump's actions signal support for the US to stay put, though she has not publicly spoken at length about it.

According to White House sources cited by Axios, she has "set up a process to go through the decision and ensure [Trump] hears all the facts before making his decision."

For example, in December Ivanka Trump and her father had two separate meetings with former vice president Al Gore and actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio.

Terry Tamminen, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF), who was at the meeting with DiCaprio and the Trumps, told Business Insider that the president was very receptive to their meeting and asked for a second meeting with the duo with more experts. Tamminen said that at the meeting, he and DiCaprio presented Trump with facts about how renewable energy could create jobs and save money for the country and he "loved" the idea. The pair also explained to him how the Paris climate agreement would benefit the country.

"Everything we showed him that was a climate solution — he liked," Tamminen told Business Insider.

Despite the positive meeting and Trump's call for a second one to be scheduled after the the inauguration, the Trumps have not replied to LDF's attempts to meet again.

Murkowski heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and shares Pruitt's favorable views toward the expansion of oil and gas drilling.

pulse