The Impact of US Withdrawal from Global Climate Pacts

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Described by US nonprofit science advocacy organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) as a "new low", Donald Trump is planning to withdraw his country from 66 organizations on the grounds that they no longer serve American interests.

Besides cutting funding and contact with groups including the UN Democracy Fund, UN Women and the Global Forum on Migration and Development, there is a clear anti-climate, anti-environment tone to this latest White House move.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Renewable Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are among the environmental bodies on the list of 66. As is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is based in the German city of Bonn and organizes the annual UN climate conferences.

In 2015, parties to the convention adopted the 2015 Paris Agreement, pledging to prevent runaway heating. Trump, who makes no secret of his support of the oil industry and who has referred to climate change as a "hoax", announced his plans to exit the accord shortly after taking office for his second term.

In a statement issued following yesterday's White House announcement, Rachel Cleetus, policy director and lead economist for the Climate and Energy Program of the UCS said Trump's withdrawal from the UNFCCC is "yet another a sign that this authoritarian, anti-science administration is determined to sacrifice people's well-being and destabilize global cooperation."

Petter Lyden, co-head the international climate policy division of the environmental NGO German watch says the move is bad news both in terms of missing funding that the US has provided in the past, but also because "the substance to agree on international co-operation to address the climate crisis is more difficult when one such big country is missing from the negotiation."

Reactions from Europe

In response to the White House announcement, European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra wrote on LinkedIn that the UNFCCC "underpins global climate action." Adding that the decision to "retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate."

But he said Europe would "unequivocally continue to support international climate research, as the foundation of our understanding and work."

The German environment minister, Carsten Schneider, said the decision "did not come as a surprise." Referencing the UN climate conference in Brazil at the end of last year, he said it was clear the US was alone in its stand on climate protection.

He cited "numerous new alliances" on international carbon markets, accelerating the phase-out of fossil fuels and even combating fake news about climate issues, as evidence that other countries were committed to taking action.

Lyden said the US direction of travel would not change the fact that a low-carbon future is ongoing. "The expansion of renewable energy will continue," he said, adding that countries transitioning to climate-friendly solutions were gaining economic benefits.

Will It Slow Climate Action in the US?

Trump's latest play has met with condemnation from American climate leaders.

Gina McCarthy, formerly the first climate advisor to the White House and now chair of the climate action coalition America Is All In (AIAI), said pulling out of the UNFCCC was "a shortsighted, embarrassing, and foolish decision."

She said it would mean forfeiting the "ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies, and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country."

But she added that the AIAI coalition, whose members include local governments, states, businesses, universities and more, remained committed to collaborating at an international level to deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Lyden of Germanwatch believes it would be hard for California or other states to fully fill the gap left by an absent federal government. Though he says there is a lot happening beyond "formal decisions" where "local and regional levels could even have more agency than the federal one."

McCarthy says AIAI will expand its efforts "to work at the local level to build hope and opportunity," and would not allow this administration to deny Americans access to the "huge health, safety, and economic benefits clean energy provides."

Rachel Cleetus also said forward-looking US states and the rest of the world understand the mounting threat of climate change and recognize that "collective global action remains the only viable path to secure a livable future for our children and grandchildren."

Read: Strict Climate Policies May Weakening Public Environmental Motivation

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