Donald Trump says he will withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement

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US President Donald Trump has said he will withdraw the US from the historic Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to global efforts to curb global warming after the hottest year on record.

The decision was announced Monday amid a flurry of fossil fuel-promoting policies after Trump took the oath of office promising to “drill, baby, drill” to pursue what he called “American energy dominance.” .

“The President will unlock American energy by ending Biden’s policies of climate extremism,” the White House said.

The U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement, signed by nearly 200 countries, means the world’s largest historic polluter will once again walk away from its commitment to curbing pollution Greenhouse gas emissions.

Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the U.S. withdrawal was “a travesty” and “in clear disregard of scientific reality.”

The new government also said it would declare an “energy emergency” as it announced measures to cut regulations on oil and gas companies and curb clean energy development.

Trump said: “We will lower prices, replenish our strategic reserves to the top and export American energy around the world. We will be a rich nation again – and the liquid gold under our feet will help us do that.”

Trump has indicated he will eliminate the national climate adviser role introduced by Biden and replace it with an “energy czar” tasked with cutting red tape for oil and gas producers. The role will be taken on by former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Last year was the first calendar year in which average temperatures exceeded the 2015 Paris Agreement target of limiting warming since pre-industrial times to well below 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C.

The world is on the way to a temperature Temperature increase up to 2.9 °C according to a UN report, above pre-industrial levels.

The US is the only country to leave the Paris Agreement – under the first Trump administration in 2017, in a process that took more than two years. But in February 2021, she rejoined under Biden. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, also threatened to withdraw but failed to do so.

The head of the UN climate group monitoring the Paris agreement, Simon Stiell, said on Monday: “The door remains open.” . and we welcome constructive engagement from all countries.”

The White House said Monday it would also take steps to “end the leasing of giant wind farms” that “harm our natural landscapes and fail to serve American energy consumers.”

Laurence Tubiana, one of the main architects of the Paris Agreement, said the U.S. decision to withdraw was “regrettable” but that the agreement was “stronger than the politics and policies of any individual country.”

Some experts said Trump’s moves to reverse Biden’s “green” policies would give an advantage to China, the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries.

“China will be happy to wave one of its world-leading electric vehicles in the rearview mirror while U.S. manufacturers limp along,” said Tim Sahay, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Net-Zero Industrial Policy Laboratory.

The Biden administration raised the bar on U.S. climate goals in its final month in office, setting a goal of reducing economy-wide greenhouse gases by 61 percent to 66 percent from 2005 levels by 2035.

At the recent U.N. climate summit in Baku, Biden’s top climate adviser John Podesta acknowledged that U.S. efforts to combat global warming “may be pushed to the background” under Trump’s tenure in the White House, but sought to defer to U.S. allies assure that this would not stop the transformation of green energy and technology by companies, states, cities and municipalities.