World condemns Trump exiting US from Paris Agreement

The White House has announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, an international effort to limit the warming from climate change to below 2 degrees Celsius.

Almost 200 countries committed to climate action in Paris in 2015 and only one has decided to withdraw; with President Trump explaining the deal “punished” the US and would cost millions of American jobs.

The decision has been described by many as “morally-bankrupt”; “reckless, irresponsible, and unjust”; “a grave moral and environmental injustice”; “a mission to sacrifice our planet to the fossil fuel industry”; and “an act of global environmental vandalism that has the potential to do great harm to current and future generations”.

In the worst scenario, the US pullout could add 0.3C to global temperatures by the end of the century, said the UN World Meteorological Organisation.

According to the Climate Action Network (CAN), the decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement signals that the Trump Administration is in total discord with both reality and the rest of the world.

“Unfortunately, the first to suffer from this injudicious decision is the American people. This action is totally contrary to their best interests: their health, security, food supply, jobs and future,” said CAN. “By turning its back on climate action, the Trump administration burdens the American people with rising costs and risks from pollution, environmental degradation and lost opportunities in a low-carbon economy and renewable energy jobs. None of this will make America great, in any way”.

There has been an overwhelming show of support from the international community in defending the Paris Accord, serving as a reminder that the world is wasting no time on laggards when it comes to climate action.

Leading international climate experts and advocates have therefore issued statements condemning the decision of the Trump administration.

The US is the world’s biggest historic emitter – that country’s historic pollution is the consequence of a rapidly warming world with droughts, fires, and floods wreaking havoc with livelihoods and lives, even displacing whole communities.

Vulnerable people and communities in Africa are already suffering the extremes of weather conditions.

Ghana, for instance, needs technologies for eco-efficiency whilst working toward elimination of waste; building infrastructure and mechanisms to reduce, recycle and reuse waste; and redesigning products to ensure durability and optimum.

“With a strong action from world leaders, we can scale up renewable energy and mitigation approaches that promote energy efficiency by cutting fossil fuel,” said Kenneth Nana Amoateng of Abibiman Foundation. “Pulling out of the Paris Agreement would make it harder for local communities to reach a safer and more prosperous future, it is time we hold our leaders accountable for their promises”.

With President Trump’s pullout of the Paris Agreement, US payments to the UN Green Climate Fund, which helps developing countries cope with the effects of climate change, will stop. The US has reportedly so far paid $1bn of a $3bn pledge.

Notwithstanding the long-awaited decision by Donald Trump, civil society representatives and social movement leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States have vowed to build people power to address the climate crisis.

"With the plan by Trump to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, people power and international solidarity are the only hope we have of averting an unimaginable climate crisis which will fan the flames of every existing inequality and injustice,” said Mithika Mwenda of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). “It will take all of us around the world, organising together, to hold the historic emitters like the U.S. under the watch of Donald Trump to account and ensure our governments also do their fair share of climate action in the next four years to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. Trump's decision doesn't change that."

Friends of the Earth US also calls on all nations to assert heavy economic and diplomatic pressure to compel the Trump Administration to take serious climate action to protect people and the planet.

"Climate change is not waiting for U.S. action and neither can the rest of the world. Trump has turned the U.S. into a rogue climate state and the world should use economic and diplomatic pressure to compel the U.S. to do its fair share. The majority of Americans do not support Trump and his fossil fuel agenda that puts corporate profits above people. The struggle to create real, deep change continues in the U.S. The resistance to Trump is strong and it is growing," said Ben Schreiber, Friends of the Earth USA.

Al Gore, Founder and Chairman of the Climate Reality Project, says the decision undermines America’s standing in the world and threatens to damage humanity’s ability to solve the climate crisis in time.  

He however says “disappointment is not despair”, emphasizing that President Trump’s decision should not stop civic leaders, mayors, governors, CEOs, investors and the majority of the business community to take up this challenge of ensuring the inevitable transition to a clean energy economy.

“We are in the middle of a clean energy revolution that no single person or group can stop,” said Al Gore.

The US pull out of the Paris Agreement should be a trigger for increased action on climate in Europe, to end fossil fuel dependency by 2030.

European and Chinese leaders have pledged to continue to combat global warming.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh