The US has notified the UN of its intention to leave the Paris Climate Change Agreement, as other countries express regret and disappointment at the move.
The notification begins a one-year process of exiting the global climate
change accord, culminating the day after the 2020 US election.
According to the US government, the climate change deal puts an “unfair
economic burden” on Americans.
The Paris Agreement brought together 188 nations to combat climate change.
There has been widespread international condemnation of the US move.
The accord, agreed in 2015, committed the US and 187 other countries to
keeping rising global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels and
attempting to limit them even more, to a 1.5C rise.
The withdrawal decision – taken by President Donald Trump after he came to
office in 2017 – made the US the world’s sole non-signatory and prompted high-level
efforts by the EU to keep the agreement on track.
However, hundreds of local governments, businesses and organizations in the
US have joined the We Are Still In movement,
pledging to cut emissions and move to renewable energy.
The US issued its formal notification on the first day it was possible to do
so.
President Trump had made withdrawing from the agreement one of his election
campaign pledges but UN rules had meant it was not possible for the US to start
the withdrawal process until November 4, 2019.
The withdrawal is still subject to the outcome of next year’s presidential election – if Donald Trump loses, the winner may decide to change course.
The US has issued the first written notification that it intends to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
However, in the notice to the UN, the US State Department said Washington would remain in the talks process.
President Donald Trump drew international condemnation in June when he first announced the US intention to withdraw.
Donald Trump said the deal “punished” the US and would cost millions of American jobs.
August 4 announcement is seen as largely symbolic as no nation seeking to leave the pact can officially announce an intention to withdraw until November 4, 2019.
The process of leaving then takes another year, meaning it would not be complete until just weeks after the US presidential election in 2020.
Any new US president could then decide to rejoin the agreement.
Image source Wikipedia
The US statement read: “Today, the United States submitted a communication to the United Nations in its capacity as depositary for the Paris Agreement regarding the US intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as it is eligible to do so.
“The United States will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings… to protect US interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration.”
Two months ago, President Trump indicated he was open to another climate deal “on terms that are fair to the United States”.
However, key signatories to the accord quickly ruled that out. The Paris Agreement took decades to finalize.
The US stance on climate change also caused divisions at the G20 summit in Germany in July.
A joint summit statement said it “took note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement”.
However, leaders of the other G20 members agreed the accord was “irreversible”.
Climate change, or global warming, refers to the damaging effect of gases, or emissions, released from industry, transportation, agriculture and other areas into the atmosphere.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign up.
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies says the world’s average temperature has risen by about 0.8C since 1880, two-thirds of that since 1975.
US think tank Climate Interactive predicts that if all nations fully achieve their Paris pledges, the average global surface temperature rise by 2100 will be 3.3C, or 3.6C without the US.
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