There are states and big companies in the United States that disagree with US President Donald Trump's decision to pull the country out of the 2015 Paris Agreement, and if someone else ends up in the White House after next year's presidential election, the decision is likely to be immediately reversed, Wendel Trio, the head of Europe's largest climate NGOs, Climate Action Network, told Sputnik on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2019) There are states and big companies in the United States that disagree with US President Donald Trump's decision to pull the country out of the 2015 Paris Agreement, and if someone else ends up in the White House after next year's presidential election, the decision is likely to be immediately reversed, Wendel Trio, the head of Europe's largest climate NGOs, Climate Action Network, told Sputnik on Wednesday.On November 4, the US, one of the biggest economies and the country responsible for nearly 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, officially informed the United Nations of its plans to exit the international climate accord in exactly a year. The US presidential election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.
"Obviously we cannot [ignore the fact that the US quit the agreement]. It is a shame that the US administration has taken this decision which is, of course, not a good decision," Trio said.
At the same time, the Federal government is limited in its impact and, as Trio stressed, there are many individual US states that disagree with the president's decision and want to move forward with green projects. Similarly, there are many big companies that want the same and even united under the "We Are Still In" movement, the CAN chief added.
"So it is not all doom and gloom in the US, there are different voices, and of course we have to see what happens with the [presidential] elections in November next year because the exact date when the US will leave the Paris Agreement is after the presidential election. And we understand that whatever democratic president [wins], they would immediately repeal the decision of Trump and get back into the Paris Agreement. But of course, it is only one of the scenarios," Trio said.
The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 with the ambitious aim to bring all nations together under the common cause of combating climate change. Its most well-known premise is to try to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to ideally pursue an even lower limit of 1.5 degrees. The treaty has no compliance mechanism.
