Donald Trump on Monday decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. Thus, he withdrew the US from this agreement for the second time in the last five years. What is this agreement and why has Trump abandoned it again?
On the first day of the presidency Donald Trump signed eight regulations and implementing directives, including the repeal of 78 of his predecessor's actions on immigration and the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement about the climate. Thus, Trump withdrew for the second time United States from the Paris Agreement.
Last time, the formal exit process began in November 2019 and lasted exactly one year. The US left the treaty on November 4, 2020, the day after the presidential elections in this country, in which Trump lost to Joe Biden. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 2021, Biden signed a resolution to rejoin the US to the Paris Climate Agreement.
Donald Trump PAP/EPA/ANGELINA KATSANIS
Why doesn't Trump want the Paris Agreement?
At the end of 2024, the Biden administration presented a new climate goal, which assumed that the US would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 66 percent by 2035 compared to 2005. When announcing this goal, Biden knew that Trump intended to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, so it was a “symbolic declaration of the course the country could take if Americans elected a climate-friendly president,” CNN wrote on Monday.
Meanwhile, one of the new president's priorities is to abolish regulations on oil extraction on federal lands and increase domestic production of fossil fuels. – The United States will not sabotage its industry when China they pollute us with impunity, Trump said, announcing his withdrawal from the agreement during a speech at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
Paris Agreement – what is it?
The Paris Agreement is the closing document of the 21st Conference UN regarding climate change. The UN conference, held from November 30 to December 12, 2015 near Paris, aimed to reach a global compromise on limiting climate change. Nearly 190 countries have joined the Paris Agreement, including all European Union member states.
The condition for the entry into force of the Paris Agreement was its ratification by at least a number of countries accounting for at least 55 percent. global emissions. On October 5, 2016, it ratified them European Unionwhich also enabled its entry into force on November 4, 2016.
Climate agreement – goals and assumptions
The fundamental goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit the average increase in Earth's temperature due to climate change. To achieve it, the following assumptions were made:
- 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°C
- 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
What did the Katowice package change?
In December 2018, after the fifteen-day UN Climate Summit in Katowice, the so-called Katowice package. It contains detailed rules and guidelines and defines procedures enabling the implementation of the provisions adopted in the Paris Agreement. The most important provisions of the Katowice Agreement include:
- removal of provisions regarding the implementation of a part of the Paris Agreement in the part assuming the creation of an international market mechanism for emissions trading
- no new commitments to finance adaptation activities for developing countries, assuming that developed countries will support developing countries and provide USD 100 billion annually for adaptation purposes
- calling on the parties to use the results of the Special Report of the International Panel on Climate Change, which clearly indicates that climate change can only be stopped if global greenhouse gas emissions are zero in 2050.
Not all countries agreed to accept the conclusions of this report in full, but the provision on the use of its provisions was included in the Katowice Agreement.
Health costs of climate change
World Health Organization (WHO) published a report in 2018 titled “Health and climate change”in which she stated that meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could save the lives of approximately one million people per year by 2050. “In the 15 countries that emit the most greenhouse gases, it is estimated that the impact of air pollution generates health costs of over 4 percent of their GDP. Actions to implement the goals of the Paris Agreement would cost about 1 percent of global GDP,” it emphasized.
– The Paris Agreement is potentially the strongest health agreement of this century – said Dr. after the publication of the report Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusDirector-General of WHO. – The evidence clearly shows that climate change is already having a serious impact on human life and health. They threaten the basic elements we all need for good health – clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food and safe shelter – and will undermine decades of progress in global health. We cannot afford to delay action any further, he added.
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