The United States of America has formally pulled out of the 2015 Paris Agreement, a landmark global environmental accord agreed upon by almost every nation in the world to drop greenhouse emissions and reverse the harmful effects of global warming.
The withdrawal was one of the major promises made by current US President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaigns. The controversial move much criticized at all quarters is expected to be reversed if follow 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden wins the race and becomes the next president of the country.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which assisted the Paris Agreement remarked the withdrawal by the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter from the global pact as a big gap in its regime as well as the global efforts to achieve the goals and ambitions of the agreement
The UNFCCC Executive Secretary mentioned that the body will be “ready to assist the US in any effort in order to rejoin the Paris Agreement” which will still be a party to the UNFCCC.
President Trump first announced his intention to withdraw the USA from the pact in June 2017, arguing that any form of compliance to the Agreement would weaken the US economy. The administration formally served notice to the United Nations one year ago on Nov. 4, 2019. The official departure makes America the only nation among the 197 signatories to the Paris Agreement which has pulled out of the Agreement.
Expressing her view on the move, Laurence Tubiana, a former French diplomat instrumental in brokering the Paris accord stated that “If climate deniers keep control of the White House and Congress, delivering a climate-safe planet will be more challenging.”
A victory by the democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden can formally put back the United States on the Paris Agreement compliances with just 30 days of the process.
A Trump win, however, would “seal the fate of the United States – at least at the federal level – as a country that was isolated from the rest of the world: powerless to shape the international dialogue or direction on climate,” said Nat Keohane, senior vice president for climate at the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund.
