The Paris Agreement was revoked by Trump, as he reversed U.S. climate policy

The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement is unacceptable, but it does threaten the United States, and its neighbors, says Cleetus

The Paris Agreement requires countries to submit targets for emissions reductions and give periodic updates on their progress. The goal of Biden’s new U.S. goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half from peak levels by the middle of the century. That target is now moot.

In his first term, Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, although the terms of the agreement meant that the withdrawal did not take place until November 2020. The US got back into the Paris Agreement when Joe Biden was president. It will take at least a year for the US to leave the Agreement.

“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off,” he said during earlier remarks, to loud cheers from the audience. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”

China is the leader in deployment of renewable energy, but it also is the largest global emitter of greenhouse gases. U.S. emissions have been decreasing since the mid-2000s, but it remains the largest historical contributor of total carbon dioxide emissions.

Environmental groups were not happy with the decision. Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental watchdog group, said the human and economic consequences of climate change will only grow if the U.S. doesn’t do its part to limit warming.

“Even now…we’re seeing these droughts, storms, heat waves, flooding, sea level rise accelerating,” Cleetus said. “It is just stunning already the kinds of impacts that are unfolding.”

The executive order states that the US ambassador to the United Nations should submit formal notification that the US is pulling out of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement signed in 2016 commits countries to reduce their greenhouse emissions and submit progress reports over the next five years.

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“This moment should serve as a wake-up call to reform the system, ensuring that those most affected – communities and individuals on the front lines – are at the center of our collective governance,” Tubiana said.

The world isn’t on track to meet these goals. Last year was the hottest year on record, as global average temperatures remained close to the 1.5 degree C level of warming.

In the order signed Monday, Trump directed his U.N. ambassador to submit formal notice of the U.S. exit. The Senate has not yet confirmed Trump’s nominee as ambassador to the U.N. The Paris Agreement says that the process of withdrawing from it takes a full year, even though the order states that it will be effective immediately.

New wind power projects on federal lands were halted, along with the issuing of new leases and permits for offshore wind farms. He revoked an executive order that compelled government regulators to assess the risks of climate change to the financial system. And he instructed agencies to review any regulations that might “burden the development of domestic energy resources.”

Trump issued a number of orders Monday to boost fossil fuels and to kill initiatives to limit greenhouse gas emissions. He declared a national energy emergency and revoked many of Biden’sexecutive orders on climate change. New orders give agencies instructions to roll back restrictions on offshore drilling.

That could include major Biden administration climate policies, including EPA rules limiting emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants and new fees on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.

The US International Climate Finance Plan, which was part of the Biden administration and reached over $11 billion a year by 2024, was eliminated by the executive order. Bob Ward, policy director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change the Environment, claims that the world’s richest country is turning its back on poor nations at a time when they are suffering the most.

It is not yet clear how or when the executive orders will be implemented. Executive orders direct government agencies how to implement the law, but they can be challenged by courts if they appear to violate the US Constitution or other laws, as happened with Trump’s travel ban executive order in January 2017.