Trump abandons the Paris Agreement
As promised in the election campaign, US President Donald Trump announced Thursday that his country would withdraw from the Paris Agreement. However, he said he was ready to negotiate a new international agreement to fight climate change "on terms [more] fair for the United States".
Despite calls from many heads of state for him to renege on this promise - notably at the G7 summit in Taormina - Mr. Trump said in a statement to the White House that the Paris was "unfair", "harmful to American workers" and that it could lead to the loss of more than 2.5 million jobs by 2020, especially in the automotive, cement, coal and other sectors. natural gas.
Welcomed at the microphone by his vice-president Mike Pence, the American president was warmly applauded by Republicans in the audience.
“I don't want anything that can get in our way” to turn around the US economy, he said.
Conversely, the president argued that the targets of China and India under the Paris Agreement were not high enough. "This deal is less about the climate and more about [the fact] that other countries get a financial advantage at the expense of the United States," he said.
Mr. Trump clarified that the United States would begin negotiations to return to the Paris Agreement or to reach a new agreement "on terms that are [more] fair to the United States, its companies, its employees, their people [and] their taxpayers ”.
The United States, under the Trump administration, will continue to be the cleanest and most respectful country on the planet.
He nevertheless hinted that renegotiation was not one of his priorities: “If we can, great. If we can't, that's fine. "
Former US President Barack Obama, who negotiated a 26-28% reduction in US emissions from 2005 levels by 2025, was quick to respond to his successor's announcement. He maintained in a press release that the administration of Donald Trump was thus joining "a small handful of countries that reject the future".
However, Mr. Obama said he was confident that American cities, states and businesses would fill the void left by Mr. Trump's administration and pick up the torch when it comes to protecting the environment.
An "alliance for the climate"
The governors of the states of New York, California and Washington - which alone represent 20% of the American population - thus decreed on Thursday a "climate alliance", which will serve as "a forum to support and strengthen programs existing programs against climate change ”and will allow“ the implementation of new programs to reduce carbon emissions ”.
The mayors of New York, Los Angeles and Boston have also called on other American cities to block, from within, the crashing withdrawal of the American president.
"The Paris agreement remains the best weapon in the world to fight the existential threat [of climate change]," said Mitchell Landrieu, the Democratic mayor of New Orleans, who remains at the mercy of weather phenomena.
Pittsburgh mayor responds to Trump
- "I was elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris," the US president said during his speech Thursday. The response from the mayor of the city of Pennsylvania was not long in coming. "I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement, which will benefit our citizens, our economy and our future," wrote Bill Peduto (Democrat) on Twitter.
President Trump's decision has also been denounced by the leaders of several American multinationals who, after years of slowing down negotiations on warming, have slowly converted to the climate fight, for the sake of image as well as profitability.
The emblematic boss of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, as well as the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, for example, announced that they were slamming the doors of the various cenacles responsible for advising the White House.
Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or for the world.
Even the big American oil companies, which would a priori have the most to lose from the energy transition, expressed their disapproval on Thursday.
ExxonMobil, whose former CEO Rex Tillerson nevertheless occupies the post of Secretary of State, continues to defend the Paris Agreement, which constitutes "an important step forward in meeting the global challenge of reducing emissions", a spokesperson told AFP.
Finance is no exception: the CEO of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, used for the first time his Twitter account - opened in 2011 - to affirm that "the decision [of President Trump ] is a setback for the environment and for US leadership in the world ”.
Republicans cry victory
While this announcement risks damaging US diplomatic relations, it nevertheless represents a victory for the American nationalist right. White House adviser Steve Bannon notably expressed his dissatisfaction with the text of the agreement, saying it would harm the US economy as well as the US energy program.
Also opposed to the Paris Agreement, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scott Pruitt - a notorious climate skeptic - appeared all smiles in the front row of the rose garden of the Maison-Banche, Thursday. At the same time, the EPA sent a note to all of its employees offering them early retirement with the avowed aim of reducing its staff.
Many elected Republicans in Congress also rejoiced, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who considers Donald Trump preferred "to put families and jobs ahead of a leftist ideology," and the President of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, for whom the Paris Agreement was "a fool's bargain".
A historic agreement
The Paris Agreement is the first pact engaging the entire international community in the fight against climate change.
Adopted by 195 countries in December 2015 at Le Bourget, it entered into force last November, after its ratification by at least 55 countries with more than 55% of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions. The United States and China ratified it together in early September 2016.
The deal aims to contain the rise in global average temperatures “well below” by 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. States also agreed to "continue efforts" to contain the increase to 1.5 degrees.
This is the second time in 12 years that the United States has withdrawn from an international climate agreement after negotiating it. The first time was in 2005, when George W. Bush announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Kyoto Accord, signed eight years earlier under the administration of Bill Clinton.
The United States is the second largest emitter of carbon in the world after China. The latter also said that it did not intend to depart from its commitment to the Paris Agreement.
To date, 147 signatory countries of the Paris Agreement have completed their ratification process. Among the major economies, Russia and Turkey are still missing.
