US formally leaves Paris climate accord
The United States on Tuesday formally withdrew from the Paris climate accord, the key international framework for combating global warming, in line with President Donald Trump’s declaration a year ago.
The pullout by the United States, the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, is likely to deal a further blow to efforts to tackle climate change.
On his first day back as president in January last year, Trump directed that the United States exit the 2015 accord, as it did in November 2020 under his first administration.
The United States rejoined the pact about three months later after Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Temperature rise
But its withdrawal for the second time, which is expected to remain in effect for at least the three remaining years of Trump’s current presidency, will make it even more difficult for the international community to achieve the goal of limiting the rise in the global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
In his nearly hourlong speech at the UN General Assembly in September last year, Trump dismissed the dangers of climate change, calling it the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
Earlier this month, Trump said the United States plans to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992, which has provided the legal foundation for the Paris accord.
Trump’s retreat on climate cooperation and multilateralism will likely mean considerable time would be needed for the United States to rejoin the accord under a new administration.
The accord, adopted in 2015 and entering into force the following year, has been ratified by nearly 200 countries and regions. It is the first global agreement requiring all nations, regardless of their level of development, to set greenhouse gas reduction targets.
