US left isolated on climate change

WASHINGTON // World leaders joined a chorus of disapproval and committed themselves to redoubling efforts to tackle global warming after Donald Trump announced the United States was withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Environmentalists warned lasting damage would be done if the world’s second-biggest producer of greenhouse gases gave up its target of reducing carbon emissions.

Several high-profile American business leaders said they would no longer work as informal advisers to Mr Trump.

In a rare joint statement, Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron rebuffed the American president’s offer to renegotiate the 2015 agreement.

“We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies,” they said as they condemned his decision.

Russian president Vladimir Putin, however, said he would not judge Mr Trump for quitting the landmark climate pact, although he felt Washington could have stayed in the agreement, and renegotiation was still possible.

Analysts forecast that US withdrawal would make it more difficult for the world to reach its goal of limiting global warming to less than 2°C by the end of the century.

Not only does the US contribute about 15 per cent of carbon emissions per annum, the decision weakens an international consensus that rising levels of greenhouse gases need an urgent response. The US was also supposed to provide funding to help poorer nations reach their goals.

Mr Trump revealed his decision during a speech in the White House Rose Garden. He had kept even his own officials guessing all week as he finalised his plan.

In an address that included the dark rhetorical flourishes of the campaign trail, he railed against nations that he said were using the accord to give themselves an economic edge over the US.

“At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers,” he said.

“We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more, and they won’t be.”

He claimed the agreement would cost the US millions of jobs and trillions of dollars if left in place and said he was striking a blow for American sovereignty and American workers.

His decision marks a return to the America First philosophy that hoisted him to power. It also suggested a victory for Steve Bannon, chief White House strategist, who has spent weeks competing with more moderate members of the administration for the president’s ear.

Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who were pushing Mr Trump to keep to the deal, were not present to hear the speech.

The 2015 accord brought together 195 countries which each made commitments to meet their own targets. The idea was to build a consensus on tackling global warming for the first time by making the entire process voluntary, avoiding criticism that developing countries were being forced to curtail economic growth to pay for the excesses of the developed world.

Barack Obama committed the US to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2025.

The US now stands alongside only Syria and Nicaragua in rejecting the accord.

Mr Obama issued a condemnation of the decision even as he spoke of his hope that Americans would keep the agreement alive.

“Even in the absence of American leadership, even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future, I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got,” he said.

Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and Bob Iger, chief executive of Disney, said they would no longer participate in Mr Trump’s advisory councils.

Environmentalists said Mr Trump’s decision condemned the world to a bleak future of rising sea levels and scarce resources by undermining an international consensus that climate change posed a threat to the world.

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth US, accused Mr Trump of elevating oil companies over the environment.

“History will harshly judge the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement,” he said.

“By denying climate change and failing to act, Trump has put us on a path beset with increased famine, poverty, disease and death for millions of people in the US and across the globe.”

foreign.desk@thenational.ae