Alwaght- US President Donald Trump has announced the country’s withdrawal from the global Paris Climate Agreement in a move likely to further isolate the country internationally.
Speaking on Thursday at the White House in Washington, Trump said that “one-by-one” he’s keeping the promises he made in his presidential campaign. “Believe me, we’ve just begun,” he said. “The fruits of our labor will be seen very shortly.”
“I don’t want anything to get in our way,” he said. “Therefore, in order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America... the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord.” During the campaign, Trump vowed to "cancel" the Paris deal within 100 days of becoming president on Jan. 20, part of an effort to bolster US oil and coal industries.
Environmental groups have pointed out that the Trump administration’s executive orders setting aside Obama-era emissions caps and other environmental protections have represented an abandonment of the fight against climate change before today’s news.
Which means that should the next US president be sympathetic to the idea of re-joining the Paris accord (assuming it still exists), he/she will have more work to do than simply signing back on to this one deal.
The withdrawal from the 195-nation accord agreed upon in Paris in 2015 is set to deepen a rift with US allies
Supporters of the accord condemned Trump's move as an abdication of American leadership and an international disgrace.
"At this moment, when climate change is already causing devastating harm around the world, we do not have the moral right to turn our backs on efforts to preserve this planet for future generations," said US Senator Bernie Sanders, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
"Ignoring reality and leaving the Paris agreement could go down as one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our nation's history, isolating the U.S. further after Trump's shockingly bad European trip," Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse added.
The US has contributed more than any other country to the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is scorching the planet. The US is also the second-largest producer of carbon dioxide, behind China, according to the latest data available from the World Bank.
Scientists have warned that a US withdrawal from the deal could speed up the effects of global climate change, leading to heat waves, floods, droughts and more frequent violent storms.
Environmentalists say Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris accord condemns this generation and those to come. Activists have accused the US president of declaring war on the planet itself by his controversial move.
