Trump announces he is once again withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he will again withdraw the United States, a top carbon polluter, from the historic Paris climate accord, dealing a major blow to efforts global efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the United States from its closest allies. .

The White House announcement, which came as Trump was sworn in Monday for a second term, echoes Trump’s actions in 2017, when he announced that the United States would abandon the global Paris agreement. The pact aims to limit long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keep temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.

The 2015 Paris Agreement is voluntary and allows countries to set targets to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas. These targets are set to become stricter over time, with countries facing a February 2025 deadline for new individual plans. The outgoing Biden administration last month proposed a plan to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris agreement, called the planned US withdrawal unfortunate but said action to slow climate change “is stronger than the politics and policies of any country.”

The global context for Trump’s action is “very different from 2017,” Tubiana said, adding that “there is unstoppable economic momentum behind the global transition, which the United States has driven and led but risks now to lose.”

The International Energy Agency expects the global market for key clean energy technologies to triple to more than $2 trillion by 2035, it said.

“The impacts of the climate crisis are also worsening. The horrific wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest reminder that Americans, like everyone else, are affected by worsening climate change,” Tubiana said.

Gina McCarthy, who served as a White House climate adviser under Democratic President Joe Biden, said that if Trump, a Republican, “really wants America to lead the global economy, become energy independent and create good-paying American jobs,” then we must “stay focused on growing our clean energy industry.” Clean technologies are lowering energy costs for people across the country.

The world now stands 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) above temperatures in the mid-1800s over the long term. Most, but not all, climate monitoring agencies have said temperatures Global temperatures exceeded 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit last year, and all declared it the hottest year on record.

The process of withdrawing from the Paris agreement takes a year. Trump’s previous withdrawal took effect the day after the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden.

While the first withdrawal led by Trump the historic UN agreement – adopted by 196 countries – shocked and angered nations around the world, “No country followed the United States,” said Alden Meyer, a longtime analyst of climate negotiations at the European think tank E3G.

Instead, other countries have renewed their commitment to slowing climate change, alongside investors, businesses, governors, mayors and others in the United States, Meyer and others said experts.

They nevertheless lamented the loss of American leadership in global efforts to slow climate change, even as the world is on track to establish a new one. record hot year and has been stumbling ever since drought has hurricane has flood has forest fire.

“It is clear that America will not play a major role in solving the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humanity has ever faced,” said climate activist and writer Bill McKibben. “For the next few years, the best we can hope for is that Washington does not succeed in destroying the efforts of others.”

About half of Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose U.S. action to withdraw from the climate agreement, and even Republicans are not overwhelmingly in favor, according to a report. Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Only about 2 in 10 American adults “somewhat” or “strongly” favor withdrawing from the Paris agreement, while about a quarter are neutral.

Much of the opposition to the US withdrawal comes from Democrats, but Republicans also show some ambivalence. Just under half of Republicans favor withdrawing from the climate agreement, while about two in ten are opposed.

A few years ago, China overtook the United States to become the world’s largest annual carbon dioxide emitter. The United States – the second most polluting country each year – released 4.9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air in 2023, an 11% drop from a decade earlier, scientists say which track emissions for the Global Carbon Project.

But carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries, which is why the United States has released more of the heat-trapping gas that is now in the air than any other country. The United States is responsible for nearly 22 percent of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere since 1950, according to the Global Carbon Project.

While global efforts to combat climate change continued during Trump’s first term, many experts fear that a second Trump term could be more damaging, with the United States withdrawing even more from climate efforts in a way that could cripple the efforts of future presidents. With Trump, who rejected climate changein charge of the world’s largest economy, these experts fear that other countries, notably China, will use it as an excuse to relax their own efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Simon Stiell, the UN’s executive secretary on climate change, raised hopes that the United States would continue to benefit from the global clean energy boom.

“Ignoring it only sends all this immense wealth to competing economies, while climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse,” Stiell said. “The door remains open to the Paris Agreement and we welcome the constructive engagement of all countries. »

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

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