Trump Looking To Drop Paris Climate Accords ASAP

Trump Looking To Drop Paris Climate Accords ASAP

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Donald Trump is a professional liar. Now that he is the US President-elect with actual President-ing to do, he’s angling to make the United States a liar on the international stage.


“It was reckless for the Paris agreement to enter into force before the election” on Tuesday, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Paris Agreement won enough backing for entry into force on Nov. 4.

Alternatives were to send a letter withdrawing from a 1992 Convention that is the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement, voiding US involvement in both in a year’s time, or to issue a presidential order simply deleting the US signature from the Paris accord, he said.


Michael Wara, an environmental law professor at the Stanford Law School, told Scientific American that at this point a Senate vote wouldn’t be “relevant legally, given the status of the agreement”. But relevance, legality and formal commitments have never stopped Trump before.



The legal complications could make this a tough nut for the amateurish Trump team to crack and Obama’s gamble could pay off. Additionally, reneging on the agreement would also damage international relations in ways that even Trump might not like. Speaking at a briefing in Marrakech, Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said, “If a President Trump were not to honour US commitments under the Paris Agreement, it will negatively impact his ability to get the cooperation of world leaders on other issues he cares about, such as trade and terrorism.”

It’s going to be an unpredictable ride. Trump is quite likely to go back on pledges that he’s made to his supporters. But considering that he’s installed one of the most prominent climate change deniers on Earth to lead the transition process for the EPA, destroying the planet seems like one promise he could keep.