HQ Team
January 21, 2025: The US, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, will withdraw from a global pact to limit global warming.
Donal Trump also issued another executive order to halt offshore wind lease sales and pause the issuance of approvals, permits, and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects.
The 47th President of the US, Trump, stated that the US, over the decades, has “simultaneously grown its economy, raised worker wages, increased energy production, reduced air and water pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”
In recent years, the US has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that “do not reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives.”
‘No merit’
“Moreover, these agreements steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.”
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations “shall immediately submit formal written notification of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” according to the executive order.
The US will now join Iran, Yemen and Libya as the only countries to currently stand outside the Paris Agreement.
In 2017, Trump, then the 45th President of the US, signed an order to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which is not a legally binding treaty.
Joe Biden, who became the 46th President, reversed the move in 2021. The latest withdrawal is likely to take effect within a year.
Fossil fuels
The Paris Agreement was signed by 196 nations in 2015 to tackle the threat of climate change.
Its main goal was to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade or below 2 degrees centigrade, above pre-industrial levels, by the end of the century.
Trump’s decision comes at a time when 2024 was designated by global weather organizations to be the hottest year on record.
Fossil fuels – natural gas, coal, and oil – are the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions, the primary drivers of global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature.
Halt new gas, oil fields
The International Energy Agency has urged countries to halt new gas and oil field projects, arguing that this is the only way to keep the 1.5-degree centigrade-compatible net-zero emissions scenario alive.
The top three greenhouse gas emitters — China, the United States and India — contribute 42.6% of total emissions, while the bottom 100 countries account for only 2.9%.
According to the temporary cessation and immediate review of Federal Wind Leasing and Permitting Practices, the administration took a call after “legal deficiencies” in the current policies — the consequences of which may lead to “grave harm.”
It included negative impacts on “navigational safety interests, transportation interests, national security interests, commercial interests, and marine mammals.”
The relevant authorities should not issue new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases, or loans for onshore or offshore wind projects pending the completion of a comprehensive assessment and review of Federal Wind Leasing and Permitting Practices, it stated.
