Trump on Paris Climate deal: “We’re getting out”

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.

The Paris Accord committed to tackling the climate change was signed by 195 nations in December 2015, who have pledged to try and keep the global warming going over 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels. The then U.S. President Obama signed the deal as well.

However, the current president on Thursday said the U.S. was getting out, calling the Paris Accord unfair to the U.S., and citing its economic disadvantages to the U.S:

 

He said: “I am fighting every day for the great people of this country.  Therefore, in order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord — but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris Accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers.  So we’re getting out.  But we will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair.  And if we can, that’s great.  And if we can’t, that’s fine.

 

The Trump administration has come up with the numbers according to which the  energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. have “significantly declined since before the Paris Climate Accord was negotiated, and will continue to decline as a share of worldwide emissions, particularly when compared to other nations such as China and India.”

 

The administration has also cited a report meeting President Obama’s commitment under the Paris Climate Accord would cost the United States nearly $3 trillion by 2040.

 

By 2040, the American economy could have 6.5 million fewer industrial sector jobs, including 3.1 million fewer manufacturing jobs. Industries such as cement, iron and steel, coal, natural gas, and petroleum would be forced to cut production under President Obama’s Paris Climate Accord, a statement by the Trump administration reads.

 

Trump said: “As President, I can put no other consideration before the wellbeing of American citizens.  The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers — who I love — and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.

 

“Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.  This includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund which is costing the United States a vast fortune.”

 

‘Sad day for America’

 

Responding to Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell, Democrat from Washington said: “This is a sad day for America. Donald Trump just quit the race to become the world’s clean energy superpower and greatly diminished us in the eyes of our allies.

“It now falls to our states and local communities to redouble our efforts to reduce emissions and find innovative ways to fight climate change. We all must show leadership now because our current President won’t.”

 

Earthjustice, a pro-environment law organization, has said President Trump has “forfeited American leadership by announcing he is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.”

“History will judge withdrawing from the Paris Agreement as a huge error,” says Trip Van Noppen, President of Earthjustice.

“Trump’s announcement is far from the final word. Legally, the United States is still in the Paris Agreement for at least the next year. As an environmental law organization, Earthjustice will continue to do everything in our power to accelerate the clean energy transition in the United States and globally. We are already working in states around the country and partners around the world. Trump’s action won’t reverse the momentum. The American people will not turn our back on climate leadership.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff