President Trump Pulling the US Out of the Paris Climate Accord

President Trump is nearing a decision on whether to formally withdraw the USA from the Paris climate agreement – a landmark deal in which almost every country volunteered to curb its greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit global warming.

On the USA side, Obama transferred $1 billion out of an initial $3 billion commitment to the United Nations Green Climate Fund before leaving office.

“Climate change is not a fairy tale”.

“A stunning abdication of American leadership and a grave threat to our planet’s future”.

“I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days”. If Trump made a decision to opt out of the treaty, the USA would renounce its global commitment to environmental protection, according to the BBC. America’s fossil-fuel industries could help these people enjoy the prosperity and comfort of a middle-class lifestyle and all the benefits that come with it, including living longer.

Corporate leaders “are continuing to try to get through to the White House in any and every way they can”, said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, the non-profit sustainability advocacy that works with investors.

And Nicaragua abstained because its diplomats deemed the agreement insufficiently ambitious, potentially leaving the USA aligned with only Syria on this issue.

Trump’s administration has already begun the process of killing Obama-era climate regulations. He calls the expected withdrawal “a big setback”.

The market reaction reflects concerns, raised by some coal companies in recent months, that a US exit from the Paris Climate Agreement could unleash a global backlash against coal interests outside the United States.

At the recent G7 meeting, other world leaders are understood to have urged Trump to stay inside the agreement, though the U.S. did not commit to the deal as other leaders did. “And climate solutions provide opportunities that are unmatchable”, he said, describing the effects as “dangerous and accelerating”.

Just a few years ago, the U.S. business world was using all its weight to impede climate talks, notably leading to the collapse of a 2009 summit in Copenhagen.

Guterres said in that speech that “it would be very important for the USA not to leave the Paris agreement“.

A source briefed on the decision told Reuters that Trump has chose to follow through on his campaign pledge to pull the United States out of the Paris accord, a move created to help boost domestic energy production and speed economic growth, after weeks of deliberations on the issue. He then tweeted that he would make an announcement this week.

The US ranks as the world’s second-largest carbon polluter, and initial estimates by universities and thinktanks suggest its withdrawal would add up to 3bn tonnes of extra carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, raising the global temperature by 0.1C to 0.3C by the end of the century.

“I think there is a general sense that it would be better for the U.S.to be part of the discussions and to be at the table, but that’s a decision for the United States to make”, she said.

Signalling a new level of cooperation, the two sides will stress the “highest political commitment” to implement all aspects of the historic 2015 agreement, according to a copy of a draft joint statement seen by AFP on Wednesday.

But now, with the support of his climate change denying EPA Director Scott Pruitt and 22 Republican Senators led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump will exit the Paris Agreement. According to data from Google Trends, which monitors what people search for using the company’s eponymous search tool, users felt a more pressing urge to search for Trump’s bewildering tweet-and not reports of a surprising policy decision.