The US formally exits Paris climate deal
United Nations: The US formally exited the Paris Climate Agreement on Wednesday amid election uncertainty, three years after President Donald Trump announced his intent to remove the country from participating in the landmark global pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
President Trump originally announced his intention to withdraw from the agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year.
The US exited the pact after a mandatory year-long waiting period that ended on Wednesday.
The official withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord comes as the US is in the middle of a tight Presidential election, with the race to the White House between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden poised for a photo-finish with millions of votes still being counted.
The US had signed the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2016, and expressed its consent to be bound by the Agreement by acceptance in September 2016.
A letter to the Secretary-General from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, dated November 4, 2019, said, this letter constitutes notification by the United States of America of its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Pursuant to Article 28, paragraph 2, of the Paris Agreement, the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement shall take effect upon expiry of one year from the date on which you receive this notification of withdrawal.
The historic accord seeks to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, the value that climate scientists have determined will have disastrous consequences if exceeded.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the agreement as economically detrimental and claimed it could cost the country 2.5 million jobs by 2025.
He also said it gave other major emitters, like China and India, a free pass.
The US is the only country to withdraw from the global pact. It can still attend negotiations and give opinions but is relegated to observer status.
Trump stated that he intended to renegotiate the details of the United States' membership within the Paris Agreement that can better protect US workers in industries like coal, paper, and steel.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had earlier called the decision by the US to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change as a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security.
The Paris Agreement was adopted by all the world's nations in 2015 because they recognize the immense harm that climate change is already causing and the enormous opportunity that climate action presents. It offers a meaningful yet flexible framework for action by all countries, Guterres had said.
The UN Chief had expressed confidence that cities, states, and businesses within the United States along with other countries will continue to demonstrate vision and leadership by working for the low-carbon, resilient economic growth that will create quality jobs and markets for twenty-first-century prosperity
The US is the second leading producer of all carbon dioxide emissions globally, behind China.
The US State Department last year said, the United States has reduced all types of emissions, even as we grow our economy and ensure our citizens' access to affordable energy. Our results speak for themselves: U.S. emissions of criteria air pollutants that impact human health and the environment declined by 74% between 1970 and 2018. U.S. net greenhouse gas emissions dropped 13% from 2005-2017, even as our economy grew over 19 percent.
In international climate discussions, we will continue to offer a realistic and pragmatic model backed by a record of real-world results showing innovation and open markets lead to greater prosperity, fewer emissions, and more secure sources of energy, the Department had said.
Whether the US exit turns out to be brief or lasting depends on the outcome of the presidential contest, The Washington Post said.
A possible second Trump term would make clear that an international effort to slow the Earth's warming will not include the US government. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, meanwhile, has vowed to rejoin the Paris accord as soon as he is inaugurated and to make the US a global leader on climate action.
"Biden has vowed to re-enter the Paris accord if elected, a move that could take less than six months," Varun Sivaram, a senior research scholar at Columbia University's SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.
"Over the last four years, the Trump administration has sharply diminished the United States' standing in the world," in terms of environmental policy, Sivaram said.
While Biden's climate plan has been recognized as the most ambitious the US has ever proposed, it still may not hit the mark, according to some critics.
Republicans have criticized Biden's climate plan as being too expensive, with Vice President Mike Pence describing it as "a USD 2 trillion version of the Green New Deal" during his debate with Democratic rival Senator Kamala Harris last month.
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What Trump did to Maduro, Modi has done to Nitish Kumar: Cong's Jairam Ramesh
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday took a swipe at the BJP over Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to move to the Rajya Sabha, saying what US President Donald Trump did to then Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now done to the JD(U) chief.
He also said that Kumar's decision to step down as chief minister is a betrayal of the mandate the people gave in assembly polls in November last year. Ramesh said the people of the state voted for Kumar's re-election and not for a BJP chief minister.
Ramesh's remarks came a day after JD(U) chief Kumar filed nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections, marking a turning point in Bihar politics and virtually bringing the curtain down on his tenure as the state's longest-serving chief minister. The move has paved the way for a new government in the Hindi heartland state, likely to be headed by the BJP.
Expressing gratitude to the people of the state, Kumar had said on X, "For more than two decades, you have consistently placed your trust and support in me, and it is on the strength of that trust that we have served Bihar and all of you with complete dedication. It is the power of your trust and support that has enabled Bihar today to present a new dimension of development and dignity."
Asked about this major development in Bihar politics, Ramesh told PTI, "During the Bihar election campaign, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, had said that Nitish Kumar would not remain chief minister for long because the BJP's aim was to remove him. Ultimately, that is what happened."
Kumar hasn't even been chief minister for four months in the present term and he's being removed, Ramesh said.
Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Modi and the BJP, Ramesh said, "What Trump did to Maduro, Modi ji has done to Nitish Kumar. This is a coup"
The US military had seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their Caracas home on January 3 in a stunning operation that landed them in New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
On Kumar's move to the Rajya Sabha, Ramesh said, "This was inevitable. This is a betrayal of the people of Bihar and the mandate they gave."
The mandate wasn't to make a BJP chief minister, but to make Nitish Kumar the chief minister.
"It's possible that tomorrow, (Chandrababu) Naidu is brought here and made a minister, a coup can happen there too. There was a coup in Maharashtra too, the split the NCP and Shiv Sena... This is all the work of the 'G2'," Ramesh said.
He said the Congress just has six MLAs in Bihar but it will continue to raise the issues of the people and Kumar's move to Rajya Sabha is a "betrayal of the mandate".
The Congress on Thursday had said a "leadership coup and regime change orchestrated by G2" has taken place and is a "huge betrayal" of the mandate of the people.
