Donald Trump‘s first day as the 47th President of the United States shook the world as he signed numerous executive orders, including the US’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Trump signed the order to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement for a second time. Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the Paris deal during his first term in office, though the process took years and was immediately reversed by the Biden presidency in 2021.
After signing the order, the US president wrote a formal letter to the United Nations, notifying the global body of the country’s decision to leave the agreement. The landmark 2015 accord seeks to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, the decision makes the US the fourth country after Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries in the world outside the 2015 pact, in which governments agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Time and again, Trump has called global warming a ‘hoax’ and his skepticism is associated with the intent to unrestrict U.S. oil and gas drillers from regulation so they can maximize output.
Trump signed the executive order withdrawing from the pact in front of supporters gathered at the Capital One Arena in Washington. “I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off. The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” he said before signing the order.
What is Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. On 12 December 2015, 196 parties (193 countries plus the EU) adopted the agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on 4 November 2016.
According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), overarching goal pf Paris Agreement is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” However, in recent years, world leaders have stressed the need to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43 percent by 2030.
What are the terms of Paris Agreement?
The agreement lists a series of commitments:
- To “pursue efforts” to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, and to keep them “well below” 2.0C above those recorded in pre-industrial times
- To achieve a balance – known as net zero – between the greenhouse gases that humans put into the atmosphere and the gases that they actively remove, in the second half of this century
- Each country to set its own emission-reduction targets, reviewed every five years to raise ambitions
- Richer countries to help poorer nations by providing funding, known as climate finance, to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy
- The 1.5C target is generally accepted to refer to the 20-year average, rather than a single year.
Consequently, even though the year 2024 was more than 1.5C warmer than pre-industrial times, that does not mean the Paris Agreement threshold has yet been breached.
Why it is important to global warming at 1.5C?
Scientists have emphasised that every 0.1C of temperature leads to increased risks for the planet, such as longer heatwaves, more intense storms and wildfires. According to a report by BBC, the 1.5C target was agreed because there is very strong evidence that the impacts would become much more extreme as the world gets closer to 2C. Some changes could become irreversible.
It is noteworthy that in 2024, earth was closer to warming more than 1.5C, BBC reported. The European Copernicus climate service said, earlier this month, that 2024 was the first calendar year to pass the symbolic threshold, as well as the world’s hottest on record. Earlier this month, UN chief António Guterres described the recent run of temperature records as “climate breakdown”.
“We must exit this road to ruin – and we have no time to lose,” he said in his New Year message, calling for countries to slash emissions of planet-warming gases in 2025.
How Trump’s decision to exit Paris Agreement would affect global climate goals?
Following the United States’ announcement, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is confident that U.S. cities, states and businesses “will continue to demonstrate vision and leadership by working for the low-carbon, resilient economic growth that will create quality jobs,” said associate U.N. spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino, in a written statement.
“It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on environmental issues,” she said. “The collective efforts under the Paris Agreement have made a difference but we need to go much further and faster together.”
According to a report by news agency Reuters, the United States is already the world’s top producer of oil and natural gas thanks to a years-long drilling boom in Texas, New Mexico and elsewhere, fueled by fracking technology and strong global prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Paul Watkinson, a former climate negotiator and senior policy advisor for France, told Reuters that this time could also be more damaging to global climate effort. The withdrawal this time around is likely to take less time – as little as a year – because Trump will not be bound by the deal’s initial three-year commitment.
The countries have already facing difficulties in cutting down emissions required to lower the projected temperature increase, as wars, political tensions and tight government budgets push climate change down the list of priorities.
Unlike Trump, former president Joe Biden wanted the United States to lead global climate efforts and sought to encourage a transition away from oil and gas using subsidies and regulations.
Some experts have also maintained that the withdrawal by United States risks undermining the country’s ability to compete with China in clean energy markets such as solar power and electric vehicles, as quoted by Reuters.