PAPresident Donald Trump has cited ‘unfair economic burden’ on his country as the reason for officially pulling the US out of the Paris agreement on climate change.
The POTUS has long refuted the idea of man-made climate change, having promised back in 2017 to pull the US out of the accords to keep the planet from warming more than 2°C.
The global agreement’s inception was in 2015, with 197 countries signing on – but on Monday, November 4, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed the formal process towards withdrawal had begun.
Today we begin the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The U.S. is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy, and ensuring energy for our citizens. Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 4, 2019
Pompeo tweeted:
Today we begin the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The US is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy, and ensuring energy for our citizens. Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model.
Pompeo said Trump has withdrawn due to the ‘unfair economic burden imposed on American workers, businesses and taxpayers by US pledges made under the agreement… the US has reduced all types of emissions, even as we grow our economy and ensure our citizens’ access to affordable energy’.
However, the US won’t technically be out of the agreement until November 4, 2020 – one day after the next presidential election. So far, every Democratic candidate has promised to keep the country in the agreement.
PA Trump was heard complaining about the worldwide treaty just last month at a conference in Pittsburgh, calling it ‘terrible’ and ‘one-sided’.
As per the White House’s transcript of the president’s remarks, Trump said:
I withdrew the United States from the terrible, one-sided climate accord, it was a total disaster for our country. They were taking away our wealth. It was almost as though it was meant to hurt the competitiveness – really, competitiveness of the United States. So, we did away with that one.
The USA isn’t exactly a beacon for positive climate action, though – according to The New York Times, the country’s carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4% in 2018, the biggest recorded increase in eight years.
By withdrawing from the agreement, Trump isn’t only betraying the climate change mission, but he’s missing out on a lucrative opportunity – there’s some serious cash to be made in the plight against global warming.
PAAccording to Wired, China is the world’s largest emitter of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. However, it’s also behind 60% of the world’s solar panels, one third of the world’s wind turbines, and 70% of all lithium-ion batteries.
The agreement is also popular with voters – back when Trump announced his plans to take the US out of the treaty, 59% of Americans opposed it, according to a Washington Post–ABC News poll.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.