Trump’s climate accord move could mark shift in global power structure.
Rest of world left to deal with new reality, China ready to fill leadership vacuum
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the historic Paris climate accord is the most concrete sign yet that his “America First” approach to foreign policy has begun to disrupt the global order and ultimately could cede Washington’s dominant role on the world stage to China.
For arguably the first time since Washington built a web of military, trade and diplomatic alliances from the ruins of World War II, and assumed sole superpower status after the Cold War, a president has thumbed his nose at the entire world — allies and adversaries alike — to follow a go-it-alone strategy in international affairs.
Trump’s overseas trip left bruised feelings in Europe, especially after he failed to acknowledge the portion of the NATO charter that declares an attack on one member is an attack on all.
It appeared a startling repudiation of staunch allies that invoked the charter to back U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
But his retreat on climate change — even if the commitments in the 194-nation Paris accord were voluntary and the U.S. already has cut emissions thanks to shale gas technology and more efficient cars — marks a new chapter in U.S. foreign policy.
It could affect the U.S. ability to enter into other agreements, from trade to security, since previous U.S. administrations were deeply involved in negotiating the Paris accord — and the United States is the world’s second-largest carbon emitter after China.
It already has sparked a backlash in Europe, where Germany’s public international broadcaster, Deutche Welle, warned that Trump’s unreliability is pushing Europe to “pivot to Asia,” especially China.
Trump’s unpopularity is so widespread in Germany that Chancellor Angela Merkel and her challenger Martin Schultz have used him as a punching bag in campaign rallies ahead of September elections.
“We are looking at a real weakening of the leadership and credibility of the United States in the world,” said Nicholas Burns, former U.S. ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush, and one of the critics frustrated by Trump’s decision.
Although Republicans largely backed the White House, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, described “a shocking reversal of American global leadership.”
China, Russia, India and other countries “will move in short order to assume our spot at the head of the climate diplomacy table,” Cardin said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had pressed Trump to remain in the climate deal, sought Friday to downplay the impact of the decision — without defending it.
“I think it’s important that everyone recognize the United States has a terrific record on reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions,” Tillerson, the former CEO of energy giant ExxonMo-bil, said at the State Department.
“I don’t think we’re going to change our ongoing efforts to reduce those emissions in the future either, so hopefully people can keep it in perspective,” he said.
His predecessor, John Kerry, who saw the Paris deal through under President Barack Obama, was less diplomatic. Kerry said Trump falsely characterized what it required, what it would achieve and who would benefit from it during his announcement Thursday.
“This step does not make America first,” Kerry told CBS Evening News. “It makes America last.”
This is hardly the first White House to disagree with allies.
But Steve Herz, international policy adviser for the Sierra Club, an environmental group that strongly supported the climate deal, predicted that the diplomatic backlash this time “will be much worse.”
“By abandoning the global effort to contain the climate crisis, the Trump administration is severely undermining its ability to achieve any of its other diplomatic priorities,” Herz said Friday.
Trump also “has revolutionized our ideas of what the U.S. stands for,” wrote Martin Wolf, chief economics columnist at Britain’s Financial Times. “We live in the world the U.S. made. Now it is unmaking it. We cannot ignore that grim reality.”
The White House and some Republicans argued Friday that leaving the Paris accord will help the U.S. economy and not hurt the environment.
“The president’s No. 1 priority is to get the best deal for the American people,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. “The president has made it very clear that he is committed to getting the best deal for America, America’s workers, America’s manufacturers.”
Environmental groups say that the withdrawal will take four years to implement, and that a future U.S. administration could decide to rejoin the pact.
Other countries are pushing ahead with ambitious projects to meet their Paris commitments.
In Paris, newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron alluded to Trump’s campaign slogan and, in a rare uttering of English in public, said it was time to “make the planet great again.”