THE UNITED STATES HAS FORMALLY EXITED THE PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD. WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS?
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n June 1, 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that the country would exit from the Paris Agreement and immediately quit implementing the agreement, including implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and financial contributions. Two and a half years later, the US formally withdraws from the climate agreement with Mr. Trump citing the agreement as a deal that “disadvantages the US to the exclusive benefit of other countries.” The United States, under the Obama administration, played a significant role in developing the 2015 accord, aiming to limit global warming to below 2C and strengthen the global response to the growing threat of climate change.
pre-industrial levels and aim to limit the increase to 1.5°C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change. They also agreed on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognizing that this will take longer for developing countries; and finally, to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science, to achieve a balance between emissions and removals in the second half of the century. All these were mitigations to reduce emissions. With the secondlargest gas emitter exiting from the deal, other countries’ attempts on climate action will be futile. The US is also a huge and powerful economy
The exiting journey wasn’t a straightforward process. The exiting involved the culmination of a bureaucratic process that began a year ago. The process took so long due to the complex rules and regulations engraved in the agreement to mitigate the possibility that a future US president might decide to lead the country in exiting from the deal. The makers of the accord had considered all the risks, and the reality is just dawning on them. The exiting of the second-largest carbon dioxide emitter from the 189-nation agreement comes amid an administration that advocated for the weakening of environmental regulations and showered the fossil fuel sector with support, leaving a trail of more questions than answers. What impacts is the Trump administration move likely to have on Americans and the world at large? In the agreement, governments had agreed on a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above 8
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THE POWER IS NOW MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2020
