U.s. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement Reasons Impacts and China`s Response

Article 28 of the Agreement allows Parties to withdraw from the Agreement after sending a notice of withdrawal to the Depositary, but denunciation may occur no earlier than three years after the entry into force of the Agreement for the country. Payment shall be made one year after notification to the depositary. Alternatively, the agreement stipulates that a withdrawal from the UNFCCC, under which the Paris Agreement was adopted, would also remove the state from the Paris Agreement. The conditions for withdrawal from the UNFCCC are the same as for the Paris Agreement. Although celebrated by some members of the Republican Party,[7] international reactions to the removal of the entire political spectrum were extremely negative, and the decision was heavily criticized by religious organizations, businesses, political leaders of all parties, environmentalists, academics, and citizens of the United States and the world. [8] [9] [10] The main objective of the agreement is to keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels”, including by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement differs from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the last widely used amendment to the UNFCCC, in that no annex is drafted to reduce the liability of developing countries. On the contrary, emissions targets have been negotiated separately for each country and must be applied voluntarily, leading U.S. officials to view the Paris Agreement as an executive agreement rather than a legally binding treaty. This removed the requirement for the U.S.

Congress to ratify the agreement. [20] In April 2016, the United States became a signatory to the Paris Agreement and accepted it by executive order in September 2016. President Obama has promised the United States to contribute $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund. [21] The Fund aims to raise $100 billion annually by 2020. If the Trump administration sends the formal call for withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, as it indicated on Monday, it would be a significant addition to the series of climate policy setbacks that could increase greenhouse gas emissions. The White House said Trump would end implementation of the carbon reduction targets set by former President Barack Obama[35] and that the withdrawal would be in line with the one-year exit process set out in the agreement. [4] On September 16, 2017, a European official said that the Trump administration had softened its position on withdrawing from the agreement. The White House told reporters it had not changed its position on the deal. [37] [38] The agreement also provided a framework for assessing progress every five years. This would allow governments to change their commitments, known as nationally set contributions or NDCs, ideally by making them more ambitious when technology costs fall, but also reduce them without penalty if necessary.

If the U.S. stays out of the deal, it could still have a voice in the U.N. climate negotiations. That`s because it would still be a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body that created the Paris Agreement. However, America would be reduced to observer status, meaning its negotiators would be allowed to attend meetings and work with other countries to shape outcomes, but not to vote on decisions. Two business leaders have resigned from Trump`s advisory boards in protest at his decision to step down. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Inc. and spaceX, has resigned from the two presidential advisory boards he had served on.

Musk said: “Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. [179] [180] President Trump`s withdrawal officially went into effect the day after Election Day in the United States. Here`s what that means. “It`s unlikely, I think, that the Paris Agreement forum can survive as a serious international agreement that really motivates countries to do things they wouldn`t do otherwise,” if Trump remained president, she said. Many of the big auto and aviation companies had already invested billions in reducing emissions and were unlikely to change course. General Motors, the largest automaker in the United States, immediately stressed, “Our position on climate change has not changed. We are publicly committed to climate action” and reaffirmed their support for various climate commitments. Analyst Rebecca Lindland also pointed out that automakers were not subject to any specific restrictions under the agreement and nothing had changed. Even if Trump eased other restrictions on the auto industry that allowed for the production of less environmentally friendly cars, those cars still had to meet the standards before they could be exported to other continents or even certain states. Jason Bordoff, an energy policy expert at Columbia University, agreed that the withdrawal would make no difference to the economy, arguing that it would be determined by market conditions such as the price of oil and gas.

At the same time, airlines have spent billions of dollars looking for more fuel-efficient flight paths – fuel is an airline`s second-largest expense after work, and so consuming less fuel (meaning fewer emissions) is in their financial interest. [50] Kabir Nanda and Varad Pande, consultants and senior partners at Dahlberg, respectively, argued that, despite the U.S. withdrawal, the U.S. private sector was still engaged in renewable energy and technologies. .