The Paris Climate Accords and Trumps Withdrawal

The Paris Climate Accords and Trumps WithdrawalThe political mode in the United States around climate form has always been complicated. Since the 80s and 90s when climate change became an stretch out of cultural significance, with momentum building towards rapid progress under the Obama presidency. Unfortunately, with recent moves by the Trump administration, much of this progress is in jeopardy. Donald Trumps recent move to suck the United States from the Paris Climate Accords is a wrong headed and dangerous move, calculated to placate his blue-collar and big-oil backers. While largely symbolic, detachment from the Paris Accords will take away very real implications for US businesses and the environment. The Paris Accords, a UN treaty organization which allows signatories to set their own goals and benchmarks in reducing emissions, has succeeded for the most part in what it was take a crapd to do get the international community as a whole to the table to discuss climate chan ge. While it offers no specific mechanisms to enforce compliance, and does not create objective standards to measure progress, it has sparked massive awareness about climate change. Because of the Paris Accords, dozens of developing countries have begun their own climate action initiatives. China, for instance, recently proclaimed that it would spend $360 billion by 2020 on renewable energy, with the goal of completely eliminating coal power plants (1). India set similar goals, committing to use less fossil fuels and post in the efficiency of their power grid, with many other developing countries across Asia and Africa following suite. Here in the United States, the national g all overnment set high auto-efficiency standards and demanded less carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants (2), all sparked by the Paris Accords. Clearly, the Paris Accords have been a valuable tool to gather global support around action on climate change, and a complete US withdrawal from the treat y is a major setback.The environmental implications ofUS withdrawal are not necessarily clear. President Trump set a timetable of close to 3 years forwithdrawal from the Accords, leaving many unknowns about how quick USregulations will be restructured. We do know, however, that US emissions areunlikely to decrease, with most experts projecting that emissions will remainflat over the next hug drug (3). It is also fair to assume that less federalsupport will be given to clean energy, which could jeopardize the profitabilityof many green-tech companies. In addition, the UN viridity Climate Fund, whichfunds green-energy projects in developing countries, will likely receive nofinancial support from the US government (4). In sum, withdrawing from theAccords means no central coordination against climate change and little to nofunding of international research or green infrastructure.The business implications of thisare more easily measurable. fountain energy is the fastest growing indu stry in theUS, estimated to be worth over $200 billion in revenue a year. Trumpswithdrawal from the Accords signals that the federal government will alsoreduce subsidies for clean-technology, which has helped fuel its rapid growth.Losing growth in this industry would mean thousands of jobs lost, and potentialbillions lost in stock investments. almost large corporations directly benefitfrom cutting edge cleantech cheap and efficient solar panels, power storage,and building efficiency having helped to drastically reduce their operations be over the past decade. In addition, many businesses fear that societalblowback will negatively impact their businesses. Leaving the Paris Accords wasan extremely unpopular move, with over 65% of Americans estimated to be inopposition (5). Businesses realize that the United States needs to be at thebargaining table on climate change, because it is such a huge issue to Americanvoters and consumers. The decision to leave the ParisAccord faced immediate and sharp backlash, with the most vociferous being fromthe business community. In early May, the CEOs of 30 Fortune-500 UScorporations wrote a letter to Trump, urging him to stay in the ParisAgreement. The Corporations included Coca-Cola, 3M, PG&E, and Disney (6).Only a few short old age after the announcement, over 360 companies and severalhundred local state municipalities signed an open letter pledging to take independent action on climate change regardless of the federal governmentspolicies (7). Business magnate Michael Bloomberg organized the letter, andpersonally pledged to give $15 millionto the UN Green Energy Fund to help offset printing funds it would lose because of USwithdrawal (8). These businesses, in their own words, seek to set an exampleand demonstrate that theactors that will provide the leadership necessary to support our Paris commitmentare found in city halls, state capitols, colleges and universities, investorsand businesses(9).The way forward, then, is clea r.Businesses and individuals must act independently. It is widely understood that climate change cannot be ignored. Without the support of the US federal government, making progress here at home will be difficult. However, as businesses and individuals across the United States are showing, independent action can make an impact. Green-energy companies and products like Tesla must be supported with the vote of our dollars. Climate research must be independently funded charities that give to climate research need donations. The oil-interests and businesses that bought influence in the White House must be boycotted and petitioned, the politicians who supported this decision must be voted out of office. Above all, as a society, we must raise our voice and riot rage against the cabal of business interests that do not care about our environment. Sources(1)https//www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/world/asia/china-renewable-energy-investment.html(2) http//www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/column-ec onomics-politics-trumps-paris-withdrawal/(3) https//qz.com/995109/trump-is-reportedly-pulling-the-us-out-of-the-paris-climate-accord-what-happens-next/(4) http//www.npr.org/2017/06/01/531056661/5-things-that-could-change-when-the-u-s-leaves-the-paris-climate-deal(5) http//www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/06/daily-chart-1(6) https//hbr.org/2017/05/u-s-business-leaders-want-to-stay-in-the-paris-climate-accord(7) http//www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/17/502425711/hundreds-of-u-s-businesses-urge-trump-to-uphold-paris-climate-deal(8) http//www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/former-new-york-city-mayor-michael-bloomberg-has-said-he-will-personally-make-up-the-15m-in-funding-a7769416.html(9) http//wearestillin.com/