Wake up to the climate crisis!
IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring
This is how protesters gathered outside the White House Thursday, June 1. Indeed, the world is crying and not laughing.
What was agreed in Paris? Climate change, or global warming, refers to the damaging effect of gases, or emissions, released from industry and agriculture on the atmosphere.
The Paris accord is meant to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. Countries agreed to:
Keep global temperatures “well below” the level of 2 C (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times and “endeavor to limit” them even more, to 1.5 C.
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.
Enable rich countries to help poorer nations by providing “climate finance” to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy. But – without the U.S.!
There has been widespread international condemnation of President Trump’s announce-ment that the US is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman called it “a major disappointment” while the European Union said it was “a sad day for the world”. However, senior Republicans and the US coal industry backed the move. Mr. Trump said the accord “punished” the US and would cost millions of American jobs. In an address at the White House, he said he was prepared to negotiate a new agreement or re-enter the accord on improved terms.
“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” he said.
Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign up to the deal.
Let’s face it, there will be some effects of the US pullout from Paris climate deal. First of all, believe me, the US withdrawal will hurt the deal and the world. There’s no doubt that President Trump’s withdrawal will make it more difficult for the world to reach the goals that it set for itself in the Paris agreement – keeping global temperature rises well under 2 C. The US contributes about 15% of global emissions of carbon, but it is also a significant source of finance and technology for developing countries in their efforts to fight rising temperatures.
Several commentators worldwide voiced out, that there’s also a question of moral leader-ship, which the US will be giving up, which may have consequences for other diplomatic efforts. Michael Brune, from US environmentalists, the Sierra Club, said the expected withdrawal was a “historic mistake which our grandchildren will look back on with stunned dismay at how a world leader could be so divorced from reality and morality”.
The key relationship that brokered the Paris agreement was between the US and China. President Obama and President Xi Jinping were able to find enough common ground to build a so-called “coalition of high ambition” with small island states and the EU. China has rapidly re-affirmed its commitment to the Paris accord and will issue a statement with the EU tomorrow pledging more greater co-operation to cut carbon.
“No one should be left behind, but the EU and China have decided to move forward,” said EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete. I strongly agree!
Mother Earth and your environment – quo vadis?
