Latest in Paris Agreement
President-elect Biden is expected to initiate the process of rejoining the Paris Agreement on Inauguration Day. But the hard part will be coming up with a quantitative statement of how and by how much U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases will be reduced over time.
Scientific and public understanding of climate change has evolved considerably since the late 1980s, when evidence of a changing climate first rose to public prominence. Since then, scientists have observed strong evidence of warming itself and have been able to attribute it with confidence to human activities.
Now the other shoe has dropped and President Trump has announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
My business just picked up. I wish it hadn’t.
Last August, David Wirth explained to Lawfare’s readers how simple it would be for President Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord’s nonbinding provisions on climate emission reductions: Trump “need not go through a formal withdrawal process, as required by the Agreement and international law.
President Trump’s campaign promise to “cancel” the Paris Agreement, and his subsequent statement that he has an “open mind” on the question, will now be transported to the multilateral stage in a setting of high politics.