Trump Withdraws US From Paris Climate Agreement For Second Time, Halts Leasing and Permitting For Wind Energy Projects on Inauguration Day
In November, the UN chief warned that a second US withdrawal from the Paris accord would undermine global efforts to halt climate change, which scientists say is only possible through drastic reductions in emissions.
Newly sworn-in President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate deal on Monday, placing the nation alongside Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only countries in the world outside the accord.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off,” Trump said as he signed the executive order at his rally at a downtown Washington arena ahead of his inauguration. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” he added.
It is the second time the US, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter behind only China, withdraws from the deal. Months after taking office for the first time in 2017, Trump signed an order to withdraw from the pact, a move President Joe Biden promptly reversed on his first day in office in 2021.
The latest withdrawal is likely to take effect within a year.
196 countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 in a bid to strengthen the global response to the growing threat of climate change. The deal set out a framework for limiting global warming to below 1.5C or “well below 2C” above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Beyond this limit, experts warn that critical tipping points will be breached, leading to devastating and potentially irreversible consequences for several vital Earth systems that sustain a hospitable planet.
In November, days before Trump’s election victory, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of the potential repercussions of a Trump presidency on international climate targets and policies. He said the progress on the Paris Agreement could suffer a major setback if the US were to leave the international treaty for a second time.
“The Paris agreement can survive, but people sometimes can lose important organs or lose the legs and survive. But we don’t want a crippled Paris agreement. We want a real Paris agreement,” Guterres said. “It’s very important that the United States remain in the Paris Agreement, and more than remain in the Paris agreement, that the United States adopts the kind of policies that are necessary to make the 1.5 degrees still a realistic objective.”
‘Drill, Baby Drill’
On Monday, Trump also signed an executive order halting offshore wind lease sales and pausing the issuance of approvals, permits, and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects, AP reported.
The newly-elected president repeatedly opposed renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. Instead, his second mandate is expected to reflect his campaign pledge to “drill, baby drill” for oil and gas.
During his inaugural address, Trump also declared a “national energy emergency” that would allow him to reverse many of the Biden-era environmental regulations and open up more areas to oil and gas exploration. However, the US hit new oil production highs under the Biden administration and it is currently producing more oil than any other country at any other time.
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have — the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth — and we are going to use it. We’ll use it,” he said. “We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
Trump also said he would revoke what he called the “electric vehicle mandate,” an Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring auto manufacturers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half in new light- and medium-duty vehicles starting in 2027.
Unpopular Moves
Over 5,000 state and local leaders in the US have pledged to uphold the goals of the Paris Agreement. Together, they represent 63% of the US population and 74% of the country’s GDP. Governors in 24 states and territories, representing approximately 55% of the US population and 60% of its economy, have also pledged to work to secure America’s net-zero future.
Separately, a new poll conducted by The Associated Press in collaboration with NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Trump’s anti-climate agenda is not popular among Democrats and Republicans alike, with only about two in 10 US adults saying they are somewhat” or “strongly” in favor of withdrawing from the Paris agreement, and about half of Americans opposing it altogether.
The poll also found that only about four in 10 voters in the 2024 presidential election said US energy policy should focus on expanding production of fossil fuels, while 55% said they believe it was better to focus on expanding use of clean energy, such as solar and wind.
Off Track
The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions, the primary drivers of global warming as they trap heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature.
Scientists have long warned that slashing emissions is the only way to keep to lower the projected temperature increase, but the US departure from the Paris accord now risks undermining global climate efforts to do so.
In 2024, recently confirmed as the hottest year on record and the first year that the average global temperature exceeded 1.5C above its pre-industrial level, the World Meteorological Organization warned that the world is “more likely than not” to surpass the Paris 1.5C global warming threshold by 2027. Meanwhile, the UN Environment Programme said current emissions reduction pledges put us on track for a temperature increase of 2.6-3.1C over the course of this century.
A survey of 380 IPCC scientists conducted by the Guardian last May also revealed that 77% of them believe humanity is headed for at least 2.5C of warming.
Source: earth.org
