The United States has officially notified the United Nations on it withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, triggering expressions of concern and regret from other major powers on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump went ahead with the pullout despite mounting evidence of the reality and impact of climate change, with September the fourth month in a row with near- or record-breaking temperatures.
Washington presented its withdrawal letter to the UN on the first possible date under the accord negotiated by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, making the world’s largest economy the sole outlier from the agreement.
According to the withdrawer notice, US will be officially out on November 4, 2020, a day after the presidential election in which Trump is seeking re-election into office.
Announcing the move, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated Trump’s rationale in 2017 that the accord would affect US businesses.
Pompeo said that, the America would suffer the straitjacket; he added that the accord would be quintessentially unfair to the American people and to the American workers.
He further said in a statement, that the United States would advocate a “realistic and pragmatic model” that included renewable energy but preserved a role for fossil fuels.
The French President Emmanuel Macron, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade Trump to stay in the accord named for his nation’s capital, lamented the decision.
“We regret this and it makes the Franco-Chinese partnership on climate and biodiversity even more necessary,” the French presidency said as Macron visited China, the world’s largest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.
Beijing also expressed “regret” over Washington’s decision ahead of the planned signing Wednesday of a joint document on climate by President Xi Jinping and Macron.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang said members hope the US can take more responsibility, and do more to contribute a driving force to the multilateral cooperation process, instead of adding negative energy.
Russia warned that the US withdrawal seriously undermined the Paris accord.
President Vladimir Putin through his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov said the exit of the world largest economy would make it very hard to talk about any kind of climate agreement.
Pompeo in his statement pointed to a 13 percent US reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 to 2017 even as the economy grew.
But Trump, who took office in 2017, has pledged to turn back environmental regulations as states such as California and New York try to take stronger action on their own.
Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the Trump administration has “once again thumbed its nose at our allies, turned a blind eye to the facts and further politicized the world’s greatest environmental challenge.”
Former vice president-turned-climate champion Al Gore deplored Trump’s decision and however said a new president could re-enter the Paris accord within 30 days.
“No one person or party can stop our momentum to solve the climate crisis, but those who try will be remembered for their complacency, complicity and mendacity in attempting to sacrifice the planet for their greed,” Gore said.
It could be recall that Paris accord had set a goal of limiting temperature rises to well within two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels, a goal that scientists say is vital to check the worst damage from global warming such as increasing droughts, rising floods and intensifying storms.
