Javier Milei is considering withdrawing Argentina from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, local media report. On Monday, Donald Trump decided to take such a step. The leaders of both countries share a critical opinion of the WHO and skepticism about climate change.
Javier Milei wants to strengthen cooperation Argentina with the United States. To achieve this, “he intends to go as far as his American counterpart,” says “El Mundo”, referring to the South American country's alleged plans to leave the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Argentinian daily “El ClarÃn” also writes about it. The newspaper refers to information received from an anonymous, high-ranking government member. – We intend to analyze remaining in various international organizations. With Trump's inauguration, we are no longer so alone in the world, says a politician who asked to remain anonymous.
Sources of the British “Financial Times”, which also described the case, describe the possibility of Argentina leaving the Paris Agreements as “very likely”.
Leaving the Paris Agreement will not be as easy as in the US
Javier Milei shares Donald Trump's skeptical stance towards climate change. In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, the Argentine president condemned the international environmental protection movement, labeling it part of the “woke” ideology. – Wokeism has distorted the basic idea of ​​environmental protection for the benefit of people and transformed it into fanatical environmentalism, where people are a cancer that must be eliminated and economic development is nothing more than a crime against nature – he argued.
However, as “The Guardian” notes, in the case of Argentina, leaving the Paris Agreement will not be as easy as in the USA. Quoted by a British daily Oscar Soria, director of the Common Initiative think tank, explains that because “all international treaties ratified by Argentina have constitutional status”, parliament's consent will be required to abandon the agreement. Milei “will not do it with one stroke of a pen,” the expert emphasizes.
A potential exit from the WHO structure would be less complicated for the Argentine president, says “El ClarÃn”. He also draws attention to Javier Milea's critical attitude towards the World Health Organization. He has a particularly negative assessment of its activities in connection with the pandemic COVID-19.
Javier Milei on Argentina's future in Mercosur
Milei himself has not yet commented on reports about his alleged plans to leave the WHO and the Paris Agreement. During the World Economic Forum held in Davos, he referred to Argentina's future in Mercosur, an economic organization bringing together South American countries. The president admitted that he would be ready to take the country out of it if its presence in the group would interfere with concluding a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States.
Javier Milei has called himself the Argentine Trump in the past. He currently maintains cordial relations with the US president. He found himself in the group leaders invited to his inauguration on Monday. He was there too the first foreign politician Donald Trump met after winning the November election.
What is the Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement is the closing document of the 21st Conference UN on climate change. Its main goal is to limit the average increase in temperature on Earth resulting from climate change. To limit it, the following assumptions were made within the treaty:
- keeping the increase in average global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era
- striving to limit the increase in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius
- adapting and limiting the effects of climate change and reducing emissions in line with the latest available scientific information
- improving the ability to cope with the effects of climate change
- taking into account the compliance of the financial sector's activities with climate goals
Paris Agreement Adam Ziemienowicz/PAP
El ClarÃn, El Mundo, Financial Times, The Guardian, PAP, tvn24.pl
Main photo source: Juan Ignacio Roncoroni/EPA/PAP