Via the Hill – President Trump will pull the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement, according to several reports Wednesday.
Axios first reported that Trump is working with a group led by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt on the exact mechanism of pulling out before announcing his final decision. CBS News also reported that Trump is telling allies about his decision.
The move marks a dramatic departure from the Obama administration, which was instrumental in crafting the deal. It also makes the U.S. an outlier among the world’s nations, nearly all of whom support the climate change accord.
But Trump’s decision fulfills an original campaign promise he made just over a year ago to “cancel” the accord.
Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he “will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days.”
I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
Trump had been telling close confidants about his decision in recent weeks, Axios reported. But a public letter sent to him last week by 22 Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), helped seal his decision.
The agreement was reached by nearly 200 countries in 2015, the first global climate accord to include that many nations. Each country made its own non-binding pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The Obama administration, which helped negotiate the pact, had promised a 26 to 28 percent cut in the country’s emissions, a pledge that Republicans had slammed as necessitating expensive, job-killing regulations.
Trump, who doubts the science behind climate change, has already begun the process of reversing American climate policies.
In March, he signed an executive order to undo most of Obama’s climate agenda, including a key rule to cut electricity sector carbon emissions, and he has proposed gutting funding to federal agencies that tackle climate change, renewable energy and the environment.
He delayed a decision on the Paris deal until after last week’s Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy, where foreign leaders pressured him to stay in the agreement.
The White House said Trump was considering the leaders’ opinions on the agreement, but others, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, characterized the summit more as a six-on-one debate over the merits of the deal, with Trump standing alone.
His decision to leave the deal comes after scores of stakeholders asked Trump to keep the U.S. in the agreement, including businesses, environmentalists, major energy companies, Democrats, a handful of congressional Republicans and some officials in his administration.
Numerous companies and individuals aligned with Trump on other policies have publicly pushed him recently to remain in the agreement, including Exxon Mobil and Cloud Peak Energy. They argued the U.S. needs to stay involved in climate work to have influence over global policy decisions that could impact their bottom lines.
Full report here
OFFICIAL SAYS TRUMP EXPECTED TO PULL US FROM PARIS DEAL
BY JULIE PACE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to pull the United States from a landmark global climate agreement, a White House official said Wednesday, though there could be “caveats in the language” announcing a withdrawal, leaving open the possibility that his decision isn’t final.
Exiting the deal would be certain to anger allies that spent years negotiating the accord to reduce carbon emissions.
The official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the decision before the official announcement.
AP Report here
This is called true leadership. It will lead the world and science in the true direction. We who wanted to do real science was demotivated and punished for so long. Now we can see some directions.
The agreement was reached by nearly 200 countries in 2015, the first global climate accord to include that many nations. Each country made its own non-binding pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Except of course most countries made no such pledge to cut emissions.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/paris-agreement-will-lead-to-rise-in-ghg-emissions/
Most of them pledged to take our money for their dictators and tyrants to get even richer. Why would they not sign up for a free ride??
Similar like IPCC! The unanimous consensus !! The whole scientific basis and arguments are flawed. Arrange open debates over media and common people need to know the facts. So much funding, power were bypassed for wrong reasons for so long.
We need to put this one to bed, though it may be the source of the oft-cited quotes of Trump describing the global-warming boondoggle as being ‘Chinese’.
Many countries, China and India being the leading examples, made a non-binding pledge to increase their greenhouse gas emissions, not reduce them. Increase them to a point where they won’t feel the need to increase them further. Non-binding, of course. And they also agreed to accept as much money as the fools on the other side of the equation (us) are willing to give them. That bit is non-binding too, but I am happy to take that part at ace value, believing they would treat free money as something to be accepted seriously, in good faith, and in large amounts.
Outlier beats out-and-out liar any day.
“Could be caveats in the language ”
This is how defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory. I hope “could” is fake news.
Not expected but the whole UN Climate Protocol should be exited. A UN Climate docs and all IPCC reports manufactured the past 28 years for the pseudoscience agenda should be burned along with random tires on the Whitehouse front lawn.
Been a tough week out in Oregon. I could stand a little good news.
Please do it.
If the Trump Administration does nothing else for the next four years, pulling out of the joke that is Paris is sufficient to justify the entire Presidency.
Just read that Elon Musk has threatened to leave a White House advisory councils if President Trump exits Paris accord. What could be better? And if Musk has any integrity (stop snickering there in the back) he will offer all his government gifts and subsidies back to the taxpayers.
Musk pull out ,,,
Sounds stupid to me because he has personally benefited financially with all the subsidies for everyone. He has been a master of “a sucker is born every Moment”. Unfortunately Obama made us taxpayers the sucker who subsidizes Musk with solar and elite electric cars.
Good bye to subsidies too?
God does hear my prayers.
The Paris accord was a scam by various countries to pretend to do something about global warming. Full compliance with the accord, which was voluntary, would have reduced temperatures very little, even by the most generous of estimates.
The irony is the United States will, in all likelihood, will meet the terms of the agreement anyway. Switching coal generation for natural gas, higher mileage cars, electric cars, continued deployment of LEDs….if the closed Brayton cycle that uses supercritical carbon dioxide (s-CO2) as the working fluid pans out, as it probably will, 40% additional energy per year can be extracted from existing power plants, meaning 40% of all existing thermal power plants could be closed at the same power output. That change alone would exceeds every goal in the Paris accord by a wide margin. The technology also is very good at harvesting waste heat from any source – it is estimated that there are 10,000 MW of waste energy that could be captured. Add to that 18,000 MW of hydro in non-powered or under powered existing dams. Fracking ensures we will have low cost natural gas for a century or more, and it is still improving. Coal will be dead in 30 years, and there is nothing that will change that.
And all of this will pay for itself. No subsidies or mandates are necessary. And all these improvements are easily exportable and implementable by other countries.
You’re welcome world.
I dunno about all that. Might want to clean that crystal ball of yours. Seems to have a greenish film on it.
“They argued the U.S. needs to stay involved in climate work to have influence over global policy decisions that could impact their bottom lines.” Obviously these companies are more interested in their bottom line than they are the impact it will have on the US economy. I suppose that is normal. But Trump needs to look at the bigger picture which is more than just looking out for the well being of a few companies.
Anthony,
As an Australian I am interested in where this leaves my country.
Foolishly our federal government signed the Paris Agreement shortly after President Trump’s election in November last.
This commits us to the Green Fund, the”loss and damage” fund and no doubt a number of other monetary obligations of which I am unaware.At Bonn recently there was the call for a further 300 billion dollars annually on top of 100 billion dollars already pledged.
If the US departs, little attention has been paid by our MSM to the consequences for the remaining countries which are the “developed nations” in annex 1 to the UNFCCC, Kyoto, Paris etc.
The same considerations of course apply to Europe and the Western democracies who have been cajoled into this mess.
Australia has already contributed or committed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the UN or its affiliates.
I suppose refunds are out of the question!
Presumably,the “fair shares” of the Annex1 nations now expand considerably.
This will add further fuel to the confected outrage of the MSM if the US exits.
Has Trump made a final decision/announcement yet???
He should read Anthony’s “Dear Mr. President” open letter (as his speech) to the nation to announce his decision…
Let’s hope…I don’t think AW would call for plagiarism…
This may seem obvious but I don’t hear this argument:
The reason intermittent electrical supply is a societal risk is because modern societies run on baseline power generation sources. Instead of putting $100 bn per year into the feeding trough in order to ‘continue to lead’ (is leadership for sale?) why not put $100 bn into research per year? CNN’s climate alarm, politically sarcastic ‘great humiliator’, this morning took snark to a new level. She attempted to paint the Paris Agreement as the Last chance Saloon where the only drink on tap is klimate koolaid. Make America Great Again by signing that pledge! It was cringing to watch.
The green solution seems awfully dedicated to things that already exist and not to brilliant solutions to ‘the energy problem’. If the US committed $100 * 83 bn to energy research by 2100 they would solve every challenge imaginable on the energy front.
If, as it seems, the real Copenhagen agenda is to transfer development money to poor countries to upraise and educate and house them, say so! I am totally I favour of the world ‘taking care of its own’ but not through stealth and not through Goldman Sachs.
Read the Panama Papers. We are not threatened by climate change nearly as much as by systematic thievery and fraud. Iniquity and inequity abound.
It the USA wants to lead something, develop some moral balls and take on the tax havens, the scofflaw corporations and underground banking industry that protects them. The world is immensely wealthy in human capacity and the spirit of cooperation. Stop feeding the ‘development trolls’ and help heal the world.
Great, best on with it then…