During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “The Brief,” Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said that the United States has lowered its emissions and helped the fight against climate change in doing so by using more gas and less oil and stated that President Donald Trump “is fair to say that we can’t keep funding the war against Ukraine, and, in the end, against us, by buying Russian fossil fuels. So, we need to wean ourselves off that.”
Van Weel said, “[W]e see in the U.S., also, emissions have gone down in recent years. So, with the use of more gas, less oil, I think that the U.S. is actually, in effect, contributing to combating climate change. And I hope that continues, despite the rhetoric that we heard today.”
Later, he added, “Well, we hope that the U.S. will keep the pressure on Russia in any case. U.S. pressure is indispensable in bringing Russia to the negotiating table. But he does have a point. He is fair to say that we can’t keep funding the war against Ukraine, and, in the end, against us, by buying Russian fossil fuels. So, we need to wean ourselves off that. I think we’ve done a lot in Europe over the past years. More needs to be done. And we’ll have to deliver on that point.”
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