PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT

The world’s consensus on fighting global warming was shattered this week as Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

In an address from the Rose Garden at the White House, the President said he would seek to renegotiate terms that are ‘fair to the United States.’

The move has caused an international outcry, with a string of figures from Barack Obama to EU leaders speaking out against the controversial decision.

Mr Trump said the Paris accord was ‘a self-inflicted major economic wound’ and argued his decision was based on a desire to put America first.

The 2015 deal has killed American jobs, would cost billions of dollars, and put the US at a huge disadvantage to the rest of the world, Mr Trump said.

He said: ‘In order to fulfil my solemn duty to the United States and its citizens, the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, but begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States.’

The Paris accord ‘is very unfair at the highest level to the United States,’ the President added.

Signed by 195 countries, the Paris Agreement commits nations to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide to stop the world overheating. By limiting global temperatures to no more than 2C above pre-industrial times, it is hoped it will stop heatwaves, droughts, rising sea levels, crop failures and storms.

But the President questioned the impact of the deal. He said he ‘represents the citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris’, said it was ‘time to make America great again,’ and that he would make full use of America’s ‘abundant energy reserves’.

He said he ‘cares deeply about the environment’ and the US would remain ‘the cleanest country on earth’.

But the Paris Agreement ‘hamstrings’ the US and has led to other countries ‘laughing at the US’.

Mr Trump said: ‘The Paris accord would undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose unacceptable legal risk, and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world.’

He said that there are millions of citizens out of work in the US, ‘yet under the Paris accord billions of dollars that ought to be invested right here in America will be sent to the very countries that have taken our factories and jobs away from us’. Under the terms of the accord, a deal could take at least three years – lasting until November 2020 – the same month Mr Trump is up for re-election.

Only Nicaragua and Syria have failed to sign up to the agreement and all the major industrialised nations, except for Russia, have ratified it. China and the EU have also affirmed their commitment to deeper action.

Former president Mr Obama, who signed the US up to the deal, said in a statement: ‘Even in the absence of American leadership, even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future, I’m confident that our states, cities and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help to protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.’

The EU’s commissioner for climate change, Miguel Arias Canete, said: ‘Today is a sad day for the global community, as a key partner turns its back on the fight against climate change. The EU deeply regrets the unilateral decision by the Trump administration.’

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the decision was a ‘disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security’.

French President Emmanuel Macron made a five-minute phone call to Mr Trump following his announcement. Mr Macron is believed to have said nothing was renegotiable with regard to the Paris accord. The United States and France will continue to work together, but not on the subject of the climate.

Italy, France and Germany dismissed the President’s suggestion that the global pact could be revised. In a joint statement, they said: ‘We firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet.’

Greenpeace UK has reacted with anger. The environmental organisation said: ‘The government that launched the Apollo space programme and help found the UN has turned its back on science and international co-operation.’

ANALYSIS

Donald Trump made no secret that he was thinking about withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, which the US signed up to in 2015.

It commits signatories to keep global temperatures to ‘well below’ 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times – and this means penalties for industries that produce greenhouse gases.

The main losers are the coal, oil and gas industries – and Mr Trump said the deal would cost America ‘trillions’ of dollars with no tangible benefit.

Industries that use fossil fuels – such as the steel sector – have ‘carbon taxes’ imposed on them to dampen down their use of fossil fuel.

Wealthier countries are expected to provide funding to help developing nations make the costly shift to cleaner, renewable energy.

The US initially committed to transferring $3billion (£2.3billion) to the fund, with Barack Obama transferring a second $500million instalment just three days before he left office.

While Britain has reiterated its support for the deal, some UK critics have said the Paris accord penalises the West and benefits the economies of China and other emerging industrial nations.

The agreement is voluntary – with each country agreeing to reduce its carbon emissions each year – and there is no penalty for failing to meet them.

Calling the concept of global warming a ‘Chinese hoax’, Mr Trump has famously said it was ‘created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive’.

He has previously argued that there is no evidence mankind is responsible for climate change and has called for more drilling for oil and less red tape. He said: ‘Any regulation that’s outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped and scrapped completely.’

Despite these comments, he has been inconsistent – on other occasions he said he has an open mind on the Paris accord.

However, since taking office, he has rolled back restrictive legislation on the energy industries, including Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which included caps on emissions from power plants.

Mr Trump called it a ‘war on coal’ as coal-fired power stations produce the most carbon dioxide.

He claimed that scrapping the deal would create jobs in coal-mining states such as West Virginia.

Britain has pioneered tough limits on greenhouse gas production – particularly through the Climate Change Act 2008. This commits the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent.

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What is the Paris Agreement?

On December 12, 2015, 195 countries gathered in the French capital to conclude the first truly universal climate treaty, the Paris Agreement, aimed at preventing the worst-case scenarios of global warming.

President Donald Trump has announced the United States was withdrawing from the pact, which took nearly two decades of often-acrimonious haggling to conclude.

The Palestinian authorities have since also signed the agreement, which has now been officially ratified by 147 parties and entered into force in record time on November 4, 2016, when it crossed the threshold of 55 ratifying parties representing 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Even without the US, which ratified the pact under Barack Obama in September 2016, the 55/55 threshold is met.

. The goal

Nations agreed to hold global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, and to strive for a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius. But experts say even the two-degree ceiling is a tall order, requiring an immediate and deep reduction in planet-warming emissions from burning fossil fuels – an industry with major influence in Washington. The lower goal was a demand of poor countries and island states at high risk of climate change effects such as rising sea levels.

Based on voluntary emissions-cutting pledged by countries so far, the planet is on track for warming of about three degrees, many scientists say –  a recipe for possibly catastrophic floods, storms, drought and ocean-level increases.

Without the US administration on board, the goal may move even further out of reach.

. Getting there

The signatories will aim for emissions to peak “as soon as possible”, with “rapid reductions” thereafter.

By the second half of this century, according to the pact, there must be a balance between emissions from human activities such as energy production and farming, and the amount that can be absorbed by carbon-absorbing “sinks” such as forests or storage technology.

. Burden-sharing

Developed countries, which have polluted for longer, must take the lead with absolute emissions cuts.

Developing nations, which still burn coal and oil to power growing populations and economies, are encouraged to “continue enhancing” their efforts and “move over time” towards absolute cuts.

. Tracking progress

In 2018, and every five years thereafter, countries will take stock of the overall impact of their efforts to rein in global warming, according to the text.

It “urges” and “requests” countries to update their pledges by 2020.

Some nations, including the United States, set emissions-curbing targets for 2025, others for 2030. Both categories are meant to be updated every five years.

. Financing

Rich countries are expected to provide funding to help developing countries make the costly shift to cleaner energy sources and to shore up defences against the impacts of climate change.

Donor nations must report every two years on their financing levels – current and intended.

In a nonbinding “decision” that accompanies the agreement but is not included in it, the $100 billion (89 billion euros) per year that rich countries have pledged to muster by 2020 is referred to as a “floor” – meaning it can only go up.

The amount must be updated by 2025.

According to an OECD report, pledges made in 2015 alone would boost public climate financing (excluding private money) to $67 billion in 2020.

But Mr Trump has now said that the United States, which had pledged $3 billion towards the Green Climate Fund, of which it delivered $1 billion under Barack Obama, would not fulfill its financing commitments.

. Bindingness

The agreement makes provision for parties to withdraw, but notice can be given only three years after its entry into force in 2016. The actual withdrawal would take effect a year later.

Trump, however, said the United States would “cease all implementation” of the accord “as of today.”

A country can also withdraw from the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, under whose auspices the deal was negotiated. Withdrawal would take effect a year after notification.