![A passenger airliner flies past steam and white smoke emitted from a coal-fired power plant, Beijing, Feb. 28, 2017 (AP photo by Andy Wong).](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/l_china_climate_04142017.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
Stories abound in the U.S. press about the hollowing out of the State Department. Employees at Foggy Bottom have relocated from work desks to cafeteria tables to spend their newfound free time over paperbacks and coffee. But there is one table that U.S. diplomats could find themselves absent from this fall—the negotiating table at the next international climate meeting in Bonn in May. U.S. President Donald Trump’s skepticism of climate change guarantees that his administration will cede leadership on the issue. “We’re not spending money on that anymore,” Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Budget and Management, said […]