United States President Donald Trump said the United States is leaving the Paris Accord—the global agreement signed in December 2015 by 195 countries, each committing to reduce their climate emissions to cap the warming of the globe.
Speaking from the Rose Garden Friday, Mr. Trump had some not-so-rosy words for the rest of the world. According to the billionaire turned president, the US has had “absolutely tremendous” economic progress since November 8 last year. This was when Americans trooped to the polls the electoral college gave the presidency to him. The stock market has earned $3.3 trillion in value, and a million private sector jobs have been created since then.
Fact checkers would have a field day with the numbers Trump has been tossing around, but this progress is exactly his premise for exiting the climate pact, which now puts the US along the ranks of Syria and Nicaragua.
Essentially, Trump said the Paris Agreement was a scheme that other nations concocted to prevent the US from reaching its full economic potential, even as they themselves reach theirs. It subjects Americans to harsh economic restrictions and, get this, “fails to live up to our environmental ideals.”
“As someone who cares deeply about the environment, which I do, I cannot in good conscience support a deal that punishes the United States—which is what it does —the world’s leader in environmental protection, while imposing no meaningful obligations on the world’s leading polluters,” Mr. Trump said. He then enumerated what other countries can do to grow their own economies, making it sound as though the agreement was crafted by the entire world with the end in mind of bringing the US down.
Most of the world is aghast, but we cannot say this came as a surprise. Over the past few months, Mr. Trump has betrayed tendencies of denying climate change and that efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions now would have an impact at all in altering what has been painted as a grim scenario.
Now world leaders and US democrats are united in condemning Trump for his decision to pull out of the accord. In an effort to save the day, some US local officials and philanthropists said they would continue financing commitments to the Green Climate Fund—that aspect of the agreement that helps other countries implement clean energy technology.
But the Paris Agreement is not for or against any one country in particular. Named only because it was negotiated and signed in France, it acknowledges common but differentiated responsibilities for each nation. Some had been spewing gases that have fueled their growth for centuries; some are just catching on. The idea is that this is about the planet, about citizens of the world, some of whom are more vulnerable to the aggregate effects of climate change than others are.
That Trump is a maverick leader is nothing new. That he would take his strange ideas and jeopardize the fate of not just the US but the planet is a bit too much arrogance for a man.
The world will make do, of course, but we wonder how much demoralization and damage can be wrought before Trump realizes he is wrong. Then again, even if he does, it might be a stretch to expect him to come forward and admit his error. He will probably just change the script.