Donald Trump affirms plan to withdraw US from Paris Agreement

The United States President Donald Trump at the energy conference in Pittsburg publicly affirmed the plans to pull Washington out of the Paris Climate Agreement on October 23. At the conference, President Trump talked about his efforts to roll back regulations on energy industries and the growing natural gas and crude oil output in the US. He further talked about his administration's intention to pull the country from the 2015 international climate agreement as the accord would have been shutting down American producers with excessive regulatory restrictions. The US President also believes that the deal was expensive for the country, which is the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China. 

“The Paris accord would have been shutting down American producers with excessive regulatory restrictions like you would not believe, while allowing foreign producers to pollute with impunity. What we won’t do is punish the American people while enriching foreign polluters,” he said, adding: “I’m proud to say it, it’s called America First.” 

Many opponents believe that leaving the agreement would harm US global leadership on the transition to a cleaner economy with technologies to boost wind and solar power. Neera Tanden, the president and chief executive of the Center for American Progress, reportedly claimed that instead of projecting strenght, the action of pulling out of the Paris agreement might weaken America on the world stage and cede leadership on climate change and other challenges to countries like Russia and China. 

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Withdrawal takes one year

However, the withdrawal takes one year, which would mean that the United States would leave the agreement one day after the presidential elections in 2020 as the US President can submit the letter to the United Nations in November to start the clock to withdraw formally from the climate agreement. 

Under former US President Barack Obama, the US had pledged that the Paris accord would cut greenhouse emissions by as much as 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2025 to help slow global warming. A former state Department official during the Obama administration had also brokered the Paris agreement and further claimed that the formal withdrawal would make it difficult for the US diplomats to participate in other discussions like the G7. 

(With agency inputs)

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