As U.S. President Trump continues to get lobbied to remain in the Paris Climate Pact by European leaders this past week and by a few among his advisors, some are saying that the new administration, judging by its recent actions, has already virtually left.
Actions speak louder than words. More than 600 million tons in reduced CO2 by 2030 is at stake (figure above)
Do Appearances Matter?
The U.S. has already started to rescind its commitments making it a less worthy member of the Paris accord, argues Joseph Curtin at Climate Change News. Mr. Curtin is a senior fellow for climate policy at the Institute of International and European Affairs and a member of the Irish Government’s Climate Change Advisory Council
“The Paris agreement is not intended as a fig leaf. It is not a branding opportunity, nor is it intended as a platform for lobbying,” Mr. Curtin adds.
“Membership of the Paris agreement is nice, but reducing US emissions is what actually matters. The current debate is really between those who want to leave Paris and totally deny climate change, and those who see Paris as a branding and lobbying opportunity.”
Wrong in a Different Shade
The U.S. Administration has already made the wrong decisions on the Paris Accord, adds Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker. “The only choices that remain are different shades of wrong.”
Ms. Kolbert cites actions such as what the E.P.A. is already doing to revoke a number of Obama-era fuel standards for cars, rules for power plants, and even the removal of climate-change pages from its websites.
In her piece in the New Yorker, she cites former climate negotiator for the European Commission Jorgen Henningsen’s letter to the Financial Times, who also echoes that the U.S. has already “de facto left the agreement.”
“The US has already de facto left the agreement, in so far as President Trump has done everything within his powers not to deliver the policies and actions necessary for the U.S. to be a serious party to it. Ignoring this fact, and accepting that the U.S. remains a partner in the discussions . . . would only underline how weak the Paris agreement is,” writes Jorgen Henningsen.
How the U.S. Electorate Feels
Seven in 10 Americans support the Paris Accord, according to a survey late last year – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.
The accord, agreed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, seeks to limit planetary warming by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases from burning fossil fuels. The United States, under former President Barack Obama, had committed to reducing its emissions by between 26% and 28% below 2005 levels by 2025.
The U.S. joins Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries now who have dissented against the Paris Accord. Advocates say that remaining in the climate accord would have added jobs, strengthened U.S. strategic interests as well as its hand for exercising soft power abroad.
Sources: Climate Change News, Financial Times, New Yorker, Yale Climate Change Study
