Trillion-dollar cost of pact to beat what Trump calls a Chinese hoax
DONALD Trump made no secret that he was thinking about withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, which the US signed up to in 2015.
It commits signatories to keep global temperatures to ‘well below’ 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times – and this means penalties for industries that produce greenhouse gases.
The main losers are the coal, oil and gas industries – and Mr Trump said the deal would cost America ‘trillions’ of dollars with no tangible benefit.
Industries that use fossil fuels – such as the steel sector – have ‘carbon taxes’ imposed on them to dampen down their use of fossil fuel.
Wealthier countries are expected to provide funding to help developing nations make the costly shift to cleaner, renewable energy.
The US initially committed to transferring $3billion (£2.3billion) to the fund, with Barack Obama transferring a second $500million instalment just three days before he left office.
While Britain has reiterated its support for the deal, some UK critics have said the Paris accord penalises the West and benefits the economies of China and other emerging industrial nations.
The agreement is voluntary – with each country agreeing to reduce its carbon emissions each year – and there is no penalty for failing to meet them.
Calling the concept of global warming a ‘Chinese hoax’, Mr Trump has famously said it was ‘created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive’.
He has previously argued that there is no evidence mankind is responsible for climate change and has called for more drilling for oil and less red tape. He said: ‘Any regulation that’s outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped and scrapped completely.’
Despite these comments, he has been inconsistent – on other occasions he said he has an open mind on the Paris accord.
However since taking office, he has rolled back restrictive legislation on the energy industries, including Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which included caps on emissions from power plants.
Mr Trump called it a ‘war on coal’ as coal-fired power stations produce the most carbon dioxide.
He claimed that scrapping the deal would create jobs in coal-mining states such as West Virginia.
Britain has pioneered tough limits on greenhouse gas production – particularly through the Climate Change Act 2008. This commits the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent.