Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised voters that he would put “America First” in the international stage. In November,
Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised voters that he would put “America First” in the international stage. In November, tens of millions of Americans voted to end the policies of President Obama, which many felt put the interests of the world ahead of their own. President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord doesn’t simply fulfill a major campaign promise; it represents America’s first bold step toward putting the American people first.
Despite the doom and gloom rhetoric from radical environmentalists, the accord would have done almost nothing to prevent any warming. Researchers at MIT stated that the Paris Accord would only reduce temperature rise by 0.2 degrees by 2100, even if every single country in the agreement abided perfectly by the rules.
In 1997, the United Nations organised member countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to curb global emissions to significantly below 1990 levels. In that time period, global emissions rose by more than 35%.
As we saw with the Kyoto Protocol, even industrialised countries have been largely unable to abide by the agreement. Only a few years after the treaty took effect, Canada announced it would withdraw from the protocol, citing their inability to meet agreed upon emissions targets, and desire to avoid the associated $14B fine. Other countries like Russia also decided to not fulfil their obligations, effectively removing them from participating in the agreement.
According to the United Nations, only 77 of the 193 original signers have ratified the Doha Amendment, which sets emissions targets for 2013-2020. To become international law, 144 countries will need to sign the agreement, which sets emissions standards for less than three more years.
Ironically, Japan, the country where the treaty was initially adopted, announced in 2011 that they would not accept new Kyoto regulations going forward.
A few years after the United States Senate rejected the treaty on a unanimous 95-0 vote, President Bush announced he would refuse to move forward with the Kyoto Protocol, calling it an agreement that would “harm our economy and hurt our workers.” President Bush rightly believed that ratifying the treaty would have little impact on the environment, and would do more harm than good to the United States.
Sixteen years later, President Trump told the American people that the Paris Climate Accord would do more harm than good to the American worker.
He’s right.
euronews.com
