Climate Change: US Officially Exits Paris Climate Accord
US President Donald Trump and his advisors have described the historic 2015 climate change mitigation agreement - a cornerstone of the foreign policy legacy of former US President Barack Obama - as weak, particularly with regard to providing incentives to polluters in India and China to lower emissions, while concurrently being too hard on US industry.
Washington, November 4: The United States on Wednesday has officially left the Paris climate accord, The Hill reported. On November 5, 2019, President Donald Trump had officially begun the process of withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.
US President Donald Trump and his advisors have described the historic 2015 climate change mitigation agreement - a cornerstone of the foreign policy legacy of former US President Barack Obama - as weak, particularly with regard to providing incentives to polluters in India and China to lower emissions, while concurrently being too hard on US industry.
Arguing that the 2015 agreement was detrimental to the US economy, Trump in 2017 had said: "In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, but being negotiations to reenter, either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction under terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers," "We're getting out." Also Read | Flydubai to Start Commercial Flights to Tel Aviv Months After UAE And Israel Agreed to Normalise Ties.
Meanwhile, The Hill quoted former Vice President Joe Biden as pledging to rejoin the Paris agreement on Day 1 in the office if elected, a move that would leave the US out of the deal for a little more than three months.
"I will bring us back into the Paris Agreement. I will put us back in the business of leading the world on climate change. And I will challenge everyone to up the ante on their climate commitments," Biden said in a September speech on climate change as wildfires ravaged California.
The Paris Climate Accord was adopted on December 12, 2015, by 196 parties around the world. It seeks to curb global warming to a maximum of two degrees by 2100 by instigating pledges to cut carbon dioxide and other emissions created through the burning of fossil fuels. Also Read | US Election 2020 Results: Indian-American Democrat Srinivas Rao Preston Kulkarni Loses Congressional Race in Texas.
Under the Paris Agreement, each country determines, plans and regularly reports its own contribution it should make in order to mitigate global warming. There is no mechanism to force a country to set a specific target by a specific date, but each target should go beyond previously set targets.
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