India slams Trump for Paris deal exit
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris deal was a “death knell” for the climate agreement, Indian environmentalists said on Friday with some asserting that the US’ move was an opportunity for India to provide global leadership on the issue.
This was not the first time that the US was opting out of an international climate agreement, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said.
It had pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol saying emerging economies do not have quantified emission targets.
Noting that the US is only the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, but also one the major current emitters, CSE said any action to combat climate change would be “insufficient” by a huge margin without the US’ active contribution.
Calling Trump’s decision “irresponsible and shortsighted”, Greenpeace India said it was a loss for the US in many ways and an opportunity for India to provide global leadership on the climate issue.
It added that the US decision was leading to a shift in global geopolitics with China and the EU already positioning themselves to take the lead in climate action.
Trump has announced that the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, saying the deal agreed by more than 190 nations unfairly benefited countries like India and China. The objective of the Paris Agreement is to prevent an increase in global average temperature and keep it well below 2°C.
The Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015 by 195 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, replacing its predecessor Kyoto Protocol. It was finally ratified on November 4, 2016.
“With the US president’s latest assault on the global fight against climate change, meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement will become an uphill task. Trump has sounded the death knell for the Agreement,” CSE DG Sunita Narain said.
“Even if other countries, including the developing countries, raise their ambition, they would not be able to fill in the void left by the US. It is, therefore, not sufficient to shift the burden of addressing climate change to other countries, including China and India,” added her colleague Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE.