The Greens are giving great thanks for how cooperative the Trump team of negotiators was at the Bonn climate conference. In reality there was no Trump negotiating team. We noted earlier that one of the top negotiators was an Obama man with a deep green background, including working for the radical enviro-group Earthjustice.

Well it turns out that the whole team has worked out that way. In fact the green press has noted with satisfaction the “continuity” between the Trump team’s position on critical issues and the positions of the prior Obama teams. In short these were Obama-era people with Obama-era ideologies. There looks not to have been a Trump person among them.

This is clearly the State Department’s fault, but it is easy enough to explain. State is an “old boy’s” club, one that tries hard not to respond to Administration leadership. CFACT readers who are familiar with the British TV comedy series — “Yes, Minister” — will know just how this goes. It is very funny to watch the entrenched bureaucrats deftly keep the new Minister of their Department from making changes.

It is far less funny to see the US State Department supporting the UN climate agenda of world domination through energy policy. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Yes, Minister ran during the early Reagan Administration.

Here is how the green Climate Home news service sums it up:

Negotiators inside the rooms pointed to a “less visible” US delegation. But the Obama-era diplomats remained “engaged” and made “judicious” interventions along the same lines they have taken for years.

A senior developing country negotiator said: “They are less visible than they used to be, but their priorities are clear. There’s a strong sense of continuity.”

This continuity of personnel and priorities is part of what insulates the climate regime from outside shocks. Countries work in blocks, meaning that national politics is diluted. The diplomats who conduct this work are mostly familiar faces, even friends. This community effect shouldn’t be underestimated. They have a lot of skin in this game and care deeply for each other and the process.

In short there was no Trump policy or position in sight. The so-called American team was completely insulated from the “outside shock” of the new Trump Administration. Blame the State Department, especially including Secretary Tillerson. Personally I would fire him if I were President Trump. This is a very big ball to drop.

Fortunately there is still a long way to go to for the Paris Agreement. The next summit is a year away, when the Paris Plan rulebook is supposed to be finished. There will be several key meetings before then.

Let’s hope that some Trump people can find their way to the negotiating table, to finally stand up for America, because America was never there at the Bonn climate summit.