Trump administration notifies UN of planned Paris climate accord exit

News: The US has begun the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, notifying the UN of its intention to leave. The notification begins a one-year process of exiting the global climate change accord.

Facts:

About Paris Climate Change Agreement

• The Paris Agreement was adopted at the UNFCC COP21 held in Paris in 2015. 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 187 have become party to it
• Aim: It aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change and specifies long-term goals regarding global average temperatures, adaptation to climate change and finance flows
• Goals:
  • Temperature: hold warming below 2°C above pre-industrial levels with effective efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C
  • Adaptation: Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development
  • Low Emission Finance flows: Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development
• Approach: Intended Nationally Determined Targets: The Paris Agreement gives flexibility to both developed and developing countries to determine their own targets. The INDCs set out each country’s plan for addressing climate change, including a target for reducing GHG emissions, and how the countries intend to achieve that target.
• Paris Agreement Rulebook: In 2018, at COP24, Katowice, parties to the agreement agreed on Paris agreement rulebook to implement the Agreement. The rulebook includes details on several fronts:
  • How the emissions from every country should be measured
  • How these measurements should be reported and verified
  • Kinds of financial flows – loans, concessions, grants-that can be classified as climate finance,
  • The manner in which financial flows should be accounted
  • the information that every country needs to provide regarding their climate actions
  • The mechanisms for diffusion of appropriate technologies to developing countries
  • How collective efforts will be reviewed, leading to scaled-up actions and support every five years (Global Stocktake)

Why US wants to leave Paris Climate Change Agreement?

• According USA, the agreement had imposed an “unfair economic burden” on the country. The agreement would cost the US $3tn in lost economic output and 6.5 million jobs b
• USA is of the opinion that the Paris Agreement gives China and other big polluters an unfair advantage over the US by allowing them to continue to increase emissions.