Loss of $3tn in GDP, closure of manufacturing firms forced Trump to dump Paris
The recent public announcement by the United State President, Mr. Donald Trump to pullout from the Paris Climate Change deal has continued to elicit reactions.
Climate change, or global warming, refers to the damaging effect of gases, or emissions, released from industry, transportation, agriculture and other areas into the atmosphere.
Again, the Paris accord is meant to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign up.
Key content of the deal as agreed by signatories include keeping global temperatures “well below” the level of 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1.5C; Limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100; Review each country’s contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge; and Enable rich countries to help poorer nations by providing “climate finance” to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy
The Paris agreement commits the US and 194 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1.5C.
Only recently, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies says the world’s average temperature has risen by about 0.8C since 1880, two-thirds of that since 1975.
From all indications, Trump’s body language has shown his love for US to deepen industrial revolution which the deal seems to have frustrated the speed with which the country would have used to rival China.
Explaining his decision to withdraw from the deal, Trump said it would cost the US $3tn (£2.3tn) in lost GDP while rival economies like China and India were treated more favourably.
Just as the US think tank Climate Interactive predicts that if all nations fully achieve their Paris pledges, the average global surface temperature rise by 2100 will be 3.3C, or 3.6C without the US, several US governors and mayors have vowed to respect the terms of the Paris deal despite the US pulling out.
Whereas Trump made it clear that the deal would impoverish the US and cost American jobs, China and the European Union have restated their commitment to the agreement, while Mr Macron called Mr Trump’s decision a “mistake both for the US and for our planet”
Speaking after a meeting with Mr Macron, Mr Modi said France and India had “worked shoulder to shoulder” on the Paris accord.
“The Paris agreement is the common heritage of the world. It is a gift that this generation can give,” Mr Modi said.
India is the world’s fourth-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, after China, the US and the EU.
