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It’s official. The US has left the Paris Climate agreement. What now? 

The most important questions answered.

In 2015, 197 Nations of the world agreed to keep global warming well below 1.5 °C, aiming for 2.0 °C, including the United States. As the second largest offender our involvement in greenhouse gas emission reduction is crucial.

We’re the only of 200 countries to back off. What’s the impact? Why did we do that? What does our exit on November 4th mean? Can we just re-enter the agreement? Will this Friday be a true #FridaysForFuture?

Why was the exit on election day?

Pure coincidence. A nation can declare their withdrawal three years after signing the contract at the earliest with a one-year notice. trump did so a year ago. Unless he planned for it, it is pure coincidence.

What are the consequences?

After China, we’re the nation with the highest CO2 emissions. China did not sign the agreement. The US and China account for over 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, making it difficult for the remaining countries to achieve their goal without US (pun intended.) There’s always the risk that other countries might drop out too. However, so far there’s no indication that might happen. Also, nearly 4000 states, cities, universities and corporations declared “We are still in.” Independent of who will become the next President of the United States, the climate friendly trend from the past ten years will continue. Problematic is that trump removed at least 70 environmental and climate protection regulations. The full list is linked at the bottom.

Why wanted trump to exit the agreement?

His two major motives are his belief that global warning is a hoax invented by China, and signaling to his supporters he’s protecting US workers (summarized in his legendary Tweet.)

Will Joe Biden re-enter the Paris Climate Agreement and is it possible?

He said he would do so on the first day on the job. There’s no sign he wouldn’t take climate protection and international collaboration seriously. The formality of writing a letter to UN secretary-general António Guterres is the simple part. The difficult part is putting policies into action that show how we want to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction goal.

Will international climate projection be on track if we rejoin?

If the second largest offender (re)joins the pact, it’s a huge win for the world. However, even with the US on board, we all have to do much better to reach our goal. Re-entering the Paris Climate agreement would be a first and important step.

Resources:

Statement of the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) below:https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/climate/wmo-statement-state-of-global-climate

Environment roll-back list:https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html

Will this Friday be a true #FridaysforFuture?

Your guess is as good as mine. As of today, 11/05 they're still counting. I'm positive, though. 

And if you're wondering what the small things are that each of us can do, I made a video for you.

Small things are not small after all. 

I'll post simple tips to reduce your carbon footstep in the next hour.