On Monday, Nov. 4, 2019, the Trump administration announced that it will formally begin the process of withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement — the 2016 United Nations agreement that encompasses 187 countries and aims to “strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change” (UNFCCC). The agreement’s main goal is to prevent the global temperature from exceeding 1.5 to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who gave a formal statement following the announcement, defended the decision by claiming that “innovation and open markets” are the answer to climate change and on their own will effectively fight against it.
Not only was this a politically risky move, as President Donald Trump’s decision will affect his 2020 reelection campaign one way or another, it was a move that could have dire effects on the world.
Pompeo’s “realistic and pragmatic” solution to climate change, the solution that the administration believes America’s capitalistic economy will lead to “greater prosperity, fewer emissions, and more secure sources of energy,” is objectively doing more to harm the world than to help it.
The 2017 Carbon Majors Report, published by CDP Worldwide, a company which studies the “environmental impacts of major corporations” (Wikipedia), shows that since 1988, more than half of greenhouse gas emissions in the entire world have come from just 25 “corporate and state producers” (CDP Worldwide). This evidence might demonstrate that capitalism and industrial innovation are largely contributing to climate change.
The Trump administration’s reasons for withdrawing from the agreement are the exact problems which the agreement seeks to fix. The United States, as a result of its booming economy and influence in the global market, plays a crucial role in climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency found that from 2005 to 2014, the amount of United States greenhouse emissions increased by seven percent; carbon dioxide emissions, specifically, increased nine percent from 1990 to 2014.
The United States will not be officially withdrawn from the agreement until Nov. 4, 2020, which is the day after the presidential election. That means if President Trump does not win reelection, his successor has the ability to rejoin the agreement. Climate change and its effects on the daily lives of everyone are hot topics of all political, economic, and social sectors of the world. Its consequences are pressing and our unfettered attention to it is absolutely required.