President Trump announced Thursday the United States will officially withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the international treaty negotiated by 195 countries in an effort to combat global climate change. It is the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement, which was signed by the nearly 200 countries in 2015. Now, barring a change of terms, the U.S. will renege on its original commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.
“In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction under terms that are fair to the United States,” President Trump said from the White House Rose Garden. “So we are getting out but we are starting to negotiate and we’ll see if we can make a deal that’s fair.”
With the withdrawal procedures underway, the entire process of removing the U.S. from the agreement won’t wrap up until November 2020 – the same month the president is up for re-election. “As someone who cares deeply about our environment, I cannot in good conscience support a deal which punishes the United States,” he said. “The Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States.”
Specifically, President Trump cited a study that claimed 2.7 million American jobs would be lost by 2025 if the U.S. were to remain in the accord. Now the decision fulfills one of the president’s campaign promises made in 2016, slamming“draconian climate rules” as early as his first energy policy speech in March of that year. At that time, he vowed he would cut funding for United Nations programs designed to combat climate change.
The agreement was a signature achievement in former President Barrack Obama’s two terms. On Thursday, he issued a statement responding to the news. “The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created,” he wrote. “I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.”
