US Withdraws from Paris Agreement Aiming to Limit Climate Change
- by Lorene Schwartz
- in People
- — Nov 6, 2020
His administration officially notified the United Nations on November 4 a year ago that it would withdraw from the worldwide framework to tackle global warming.
The central aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep global rising temperatures from climate change "well below 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels" with the hopes to limit this to just 1.5°C (2.7°F).
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden, who awaits the final outcome of the USA presidential election held on Tuesday, local time, has said Washington will rejoin the agreement if he is elected.
Today, the USA officially exited the Paris Climate Agreement, leaving the world's biggest climate change accords to go ahead without the participation of the planet's second-biggest carbon emitter. However, terms of the Paris Agreement- no country could leave the agreement until three years from the date of ratification.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pledged to rejoin the Paris climate agreement on his first day in office should he be elected to the presidency.
The United States is the world's second biggest producer of heat-trapping gases, after China.
While the Trump administration has rejected federal measures to cut greenhouse gases, Seibert noted that US states, cities and businesses have pushed ahead with their own efforts.
Democrat Sarah McBride elected first openly transgender U.S. state senator in Delaware
At present, there are four openly transgender state legislators: Virginia state Del. Taking to Twitter , McBride wrote: "We did it".
As the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and the top greenhouse gas emitter in cumulative terms, USA participation in a global system to tackle climate change is critical.
There are already signs that market forces are starting to tip the energy balance from fossil fuels to renewables, but the transition has far to go.
The agreement was initiated under President Barack Obama in 2015, and is an global pact between nearly 200 countries aiming to lower their carbon emissions and avoid the Earth's temperature rising 2 degrees Celsius - or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which scientists believe will lead to more extreme natural disasters, food shortages and mass migration due to changing environments.
"We know from polling that acting on climate is not this red versus blue, Republican versus Democrat issue out there in the real world", he said, with a recent Pew poll finding more than 80% of Americans in agreement that humans contribute to climate change, including a plurality of Republicans.
The Trump administration also rolled back environmental rules made in the Obama era to prop up the coal industry by allowing it to emit more greenhouse gases into the air.
"Our support, our belief in the need for strong and active Paris Agreement remains unchanged", he added.
