The US Officially Exits The Paris Agreement, Trump's Victory Is A Climate Change Threat

Presiden AS Donald Trump (Instagram/@RealDonaldTrump)

JAKARTA - The United States (US) officially exits the Paris Agreement. This was realized amidst the uncertainty over the election results.

The move fulfilled President Donald Trump's years of promise to withdraw the US from a global pact to fight climate change. The US position on this commitment is very important.

The US is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Now, a possible change from the results of the US election is how long it will take Uncle Sam to leave the global pact.

Trump's rival Joe Biden has previously promised to rejoin the clash change agreement if he is elected.

"The US withdrawal will leave gaps in our regime and global efforts to achieve the goals and ambitions of the Paris Agreement," said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), quoted by Reuters, Wednesday, November 4.

Even so, the US is still a member of the UNFCCC. Espinosa said the agency would be "ready to assist the US in any attempt to rejoin the Paris Agreement."

Trump's intention

Trump first announced his intention to withdraw the US from the climate change pact in June 2017. The reason was that the agreement actually damaged the US economy.

But Trump has been unable to do so officially until now because of the conditions that must be reached from the deal. The resignation makes the US the only country of 197 signatory nations that have withdrawn from the climate change treaty.

The agreement itself has been going on since 2015. Previously, the US government under Obama's leadership had promised to reduce US carbon emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025 from the emission level in 2005. Obama's promise was contained in the agreement.

Biden is widely expected to be able to realize the US emission cuts if elected. Biden has pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, under a $ 2 trillion plan to transform the economy.

The Rhodium group said that US carbon emissions by 2020 would be around 21 percent, below 2005 levels.

The group also noted that under Trump's second term, if he is re-elected, US emissions levels are expected to increase by more than 30 percent by 2035 from their 2019 levels.

Most scientists believe the world must reduce emissions sharply and quickly to avoid the most devastating effects of global warming. China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union recently increased their carbon emission reduction targets.