The U.S will be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement for a second time. On Jan. 20 the White House announced in an executive order titled “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements,” that the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) would formally withdraw the country from the agreement and in one year it will be finalized.
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty adopted by the UN in 2015 with the goal of keeping global temperatures down and combatting climate change. Specifically, keeping the average increase in temperature below two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels. They also aim to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This is to be achieved by lowering the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
Along with withdrawing from the accord, the U.S. will be returning to using fossil fuels. In his inaugural speech, Trump announced his intention to end the Green New Deal, drill more oil and use fossil fuels as a source of energy. The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, one of the major contributors to climate change according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump said in his inaugural speech.
The first time the Trump Administration withdrew from the agreement was 2017. Trump voiced his opinion in a speech given in June of that year, consistent with his “America first” position he holds today.
“The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries,” Trump said in a speech given in June. “Leaving American workers…and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.”
With 2024 being the hottest year on record and in the wake of the wildfires in Los Angeles, California governor Gavin Newsom released a statement on the withdrawal and Trump’s executive orders reversing policies addressing climate change.
“If you don’t believe in science, believe your own damn eyes,” Newsom wrote in his statement on Jan. 20.
Despite the withdrawal, co-chairs of The United States Climate Alliance Governor of New York Kathy Hochul and Governor of New Mexico Michelle Lujan Grisham wrote a letter to Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The letter was promising a continued effort to combat climate change by a coalition of states, including California.
“We will not turn our back on America’s commitments,” Hochul and Grisham wrote in their letter on Jan. 20. “For our health and our future, we will press forward.”
