The authors of the agreement have incorporated a timetable for withdrawal that President Trump must follow – to prevent it from irreparably harming our climate. It is rare that there is consensus among almost all nations on a single issue. But with the Paris Agreement, world leaders agreed that climate change is driven by human behavior, that it poses a threat to the environment and all of humanity, and that global action is needed to stop it. It also created a clear framework for all countries to make emission reduction commitments and strengthen these measures over time. Here are some key reasons why the deal is so important: In fact, research clearly shows that the costs of climate inaction far outweigh the costs of reducing carbon pollution. A recent study suggests that if the United States fails to meet its Paris climate goals, it could cost the economy up to $6 trillion in the coming decades. A global failure to meet the NDCs currently set out in the agreement could reduce global GDP by more than 25% by the end of the century. At the same time, another study estimates that meeting – or even exceeding – the Paris targets through infrastructure investments in clean energy and energy efficiency could have huge global benefits – around $19 trillion. The Kyoto Protocol, a landmark environmental treaty adopted at COP3 in Japan in 1997, represents the first time that countries have agreed on country-specific emission reduction targets that are legally mandated.
The protocol, which only entered into force in 2005, set binding emission reduction targets only for developed countries, based on the assumption that they were responsible for most of the Earth`s high greenhouse gas emissions. The United States first signed the agreement, but never ratified it; President George W. Bush argued that the deal would hurt the United States. The economy, as developing countries such as China and India were not included. Without the participation of these three countries, the effectiveness of the treaty has proven to be limited, as its objectives cover only a small fraction of total global emissions. As climate change fuels rising temperatures and extreme weather events, it endangers our air, water and food. spreads diseases; and endangers our homes and our safety. We are facing a growing public health crisis. While the Paris Agreement ultimately aims to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, numerous studies evaluating each country`s voluntary commitments in Paris show that the cumulative effect of these emission reductions will not be large enough to keep temperatures below this ceiling. In fact, the targets set by countries are expected to limit the future temperature increase to 2.7 to 3.7 degrees Celsius.
At the same time, recent assessments of how countries are behaving in the context of their Paris climate goals suggest that some countries are already failing to meet their commitments. Warmer temperatures – both on land and at sea – are changing global weather patterns and changing how and where precipitation falls. These changing patterns exacerbate dangerous and deadly droughts, heat waves, floods, wildfires and storms, including hurricanes. They also melt ice caps, glaciers, and permafrost layers, which can lead to sea level rise and coastal erosion. Warmer temperatures also affect entire ecosystems, unbalancing migration patterns and life cycles. For example, an early spring can cause trees and plants to bloom before bees and other pollinators appear. While global warming can lead to longer growing seasons and higher food production in some areas, areas already struggling with water scarcity are expected to become drier, creating a risk of drought, crop failures or wildfires. The countries most affected by the effects of climate change will be low-lying countries that are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise and developing countries that do not have the resources to adapt to changes in temperature and precipitation. But rich countries like the United States are also increasingly vulnerable.
In fact, several million Americans — especially children, the elderly, and the poor — are already suffering from the wrath of climate change. The Paris Agreement is a historic environmental agreement adopted by almost all countries in 2015 to combat climate change and its negative impacts. The agreement aims to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the increase in global temperature this century to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while looking for ways to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. The agreement contains commitments from all major emitting countries to reduce their pollution from climate change and to strengthen these commitments over time. The Compact provides a means for developed countries to support developing countries in their mitigation and adaptation efforts, and provides a framework for transparent monitoring, reporting and tightening of countries` individual and collective climate goals. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding emission reduction targets (as well as sanctions for non-compliance) only for developed countries, the Paris Agreement requires all countries – rich, poor, developed and developing – to do their part and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, greater flexibility is built into the Paris Agreement: the commitments that countries should make are not otherwise worded, countries can voluntarily set their emission targets (NDCs) and countries are not subject to any penalty if they do not meet the proposed targets. What the Paris Agreement requires, however, is monitoring, reporting, and reassessing countries` individual and collective goals over time in order to bring the world closer to the broader goals of the agreement.
And the agreement stipulates that countries must announce their next set of targets every five years – unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed at that target but did not contain a specific requirement to achieve it. After all, instead of giving China and India a passport to pollution, as Trump claims, the pact is the first time these two major developing countries have agreed on concrete and ambitious climate commitments. Both countries, which are already poised to be the world leader in renewable energy, have made significant progress towards achieving their Paris targets. And since Trump announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the deal, the leaders of China and India have reaffirmed their commitment and continued to implement domestic policies to achieve their goals. In terms of jobs, the clean energy sector already employs more than 3 million Americans — about 14 times the number of workers in coal, gas, oil and other fossil fuels — and has the potential to engage much more in other investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy and grid upgrades to replace aging coal-fired infrastructure. Further development of the Clean Energy Plan alone could create more than half a million new jobs by 2030. Meanwhile, coal jobs are not so much being moved “out of America” — another Trump claim — but they are falling victim to market forces as renewable energy and natural gas prices fall. The Paris Agreement provides a sustainable framework that guides global efforts for decades to come. The aim is to increase countries` climate ambitions over time. To this end, the agreement provides for two review processes, each to be carried out in a five-year cycle.
The president`s promise to renegotiate the international climate agreement has always been a smog screen, the oil industry has a red phone inside, and will Trump bring food trucks to Old Faithful? NRDC is working to make the Global Climate Action Summit a success by inspiring more ambitious commitments to the historic 2015 agreement and stepping up initiatives to reduce pollution. .
