China To Donald Trump: No, We Didn't Invent Climate Change

On the afternoon of the 2012 presidential election, Donald Trump — then a reality TV show host trying to break his way into mainstream political conversation — took to Twitter to fire off a a 19-word missive about climate change.

"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive," his tweet said.

Four years later, Trump is the president-elect of the United States and is tasked with making decisions on climate change that could affect the country and the world for decades to come.

China, for its part, is trying to set Trump straight.

China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin on Wednesday told reporters at a United Nations climate summit in Morocco that his country couldn't possibly have invented climate change — because Trump's Republican predecessors were the ones who started climate negotiations.

Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush supported the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change before China knew discussions about reducing emissions were even happening, Liu said.

“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 told reporters, according to Bloomberg.

Leaders from nearly 200 countries are in Morocco for a climate summit and have been eagerly waiting to hear Trump's plans for combating climate change.

Last week, China's President Xi Jinping said he hopes Trump will continue America's work combating climate change.

“Of course we’re still expecting developed countries including the United States will continue to take the lead on mitigating climate change,” he said.

During the presidential campaign, Trump said he would pull the United States out of the landmark Paris Agreement, signed by representatives from 195 countries who pledged to reduce carbon emissions to avoid a global warming catastrophe.

He also campaigned on a hard-line message of reopening shuttered coal plants and rolling back environmental regulations on emissions. His campaign website's policy plan for "energy" pledges to "unleash America’s $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in clean coal reserves."

Trump denied sending the 2012 tweet, which is still online, in a presidential debate.

Hillary Clinton said that Trump "thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese."

Trump interjected — "I did not — I did not — I do not say that. I do not say that."

A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately return a Patch email seeking comment.

Image via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons