June 1st, 2017
President Donald Trump has formally announced that he will withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden this afternoon, Mr Trump finally announced his decision after days of teasing the world through social media.
The decision puts the Agreement’s goal of limiting global average temperature to within 2°C above pre-industrial levels in doubt.
The US is estimated to be responsible for 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, second only to China as the world’s main emitter.
Trump said that the decision to withdraw “is keeping his campaign promise to put American workers first,” as the Agreement “front-loads costs on American people”.
He also said that the agreement was a “bad deal” and poorly negotiated by the Obama administration and signed out of desperation.
Article 28 of the Agreement allows countries to withdraw from the third year after the Agreement entered into force, which would be November 2019 for the US.
The decision puts the US in line to join only Nicaragua and Syria as non-participants in the Agreement. Germany and China vowed today to expand their partnership and pledged to continue fighting climate change.
In December 2015, more than 190 countries adopted the Paris Agreement, the most ambitious climate change agreement in history. Then US President Barack Obama signed the agreement into force in the US in September 2016.
Yesterday, the Green Party leader Eamon Ryan TD said that the EU should consider sanctions against the US if Mr Trump withdrew from the Agreement.
Mr Ryan added: “He is making America a rogue state, that is now shamed within the international community.”
“If the reported withdrawal from the agreement proves true then our Government must come together with our European colleagues to consider what sanctions we should apply on the US administration,” he added.
Friends of the Earth (FoE) Ireland and Stop Climate Chaos, together with the Green Party, will hold a protest tomorrow at 1pm at the Embassy of the United States in Dublin.
“Trump may leave Paris but people power will ensure the next US president is racing to rejoin us,” said Oisín Coghlan, Director of FoE Ireland.
He urged people to join the protest tomorrow to show Mr Trump that the “rest of the world is moving on without him”.
“Trump is committing a foolish and reckless act but countries, companies and citizens around the world are already moving ahead towards a cleaner, healthier, fossil-free future,” he added.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump said that he will make a “final decision” on the Paris agreement over the next few days.
I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
On Saturday, Axios reported that Mr Trump has privately told close confidants, including Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, that he plans to leave the landmark climate deal.
Mr Trump faced pressure from world leaders to support the historic agreement during last week’s G7 meeting in Italy.
Following meetings on the issue of climate change, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that discussions over the Paris Agreement were “very unsatisfactory” leaving “no sign of whether the US will remain in the Paris accord or not”.
The heads of the other six G7 nations signed a communique at the weekend reaffirming their “strong commitment” to implement the Agreement without delay.
