WASHINGTON— President Trump today will submit the official withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. Trump’s withdrawal comes days after the Chilean government cancelled its plan to host the 2019 United Nations climate change talks.
“Trump can run from the Paris agreement, but he can’t hide from the climate crisis,” said Jean Su, energy director with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Most Americans know we need urgent action, and they realize this administration’s pro-polluter policies have devastating consequences.”
“The silver lining is, Trump’s Paris withdrawal will give the global community a break from his bullying support for fossil fuels,” Su said. “But the next president will need to rejoin the accord immediately and commit to the rapid, wholescale clean-energy transformation the climate emergency demands.”
Trump’s action marks two years of the administration’s participation in global climate talks, during which the Trump administration, with oil-producing nations Saudi Arabia and Russia, blocked reference to a key scientific report on the rapid fossil fuel reductions necessary to avoid climate catastrophe.
Trump has also flouted the already modest goals the Obama administration set for emissions reductions by ramping up support for fossil fuels and squashing clean energy advancements.
“America is the number one historical contributor to the climate emergency wreaking havoc in burning California, the flooded Southeast and the rest of the world,” said Su. “The next president must repay this extraordinary climate debt by rapidly moving America to 100 percent clean energy and financing the decarbonization of the Global South.”
Today’s official action will set in motion a withdrawal process that will take one year to complete under the rules of the accord. The date of the withdrawal completion, Nov. 4, 2020, will be one day after the 2020 presidential election.
November 4, 2019 – Center for Biological Diversity biologicaldiversity.org
