US quits Paris Climate deal: How America has been destroying Earth over the years

The US is the largest historical contributor to climate change, responsible for 21 per cent of the current carbon stock in the atmosphere.

Washington, June 2: The world is in shock after President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that the United States is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

During his announcement, Trump said that the decision was taken as the agreement is "draconian" and "economically burdens" the US.

European leaders and green organisations have expressed anger and dismay over the US' latest "anti-climate" step. The US is the world's second biggest carbon emitter.

However, the rest of the signatories pledged to defend the agreement and not to backtrack in the fight against climate change. Europe's three biggest economic giants-- Germany, France and Italy -- issued a joint statement in which they criticised Trump's decision and said the pact was "not renegotiable."

"We note the United States' decision with regret," they said, describing the accord as "a vital tool for our planet, our societies and our economies."

Environmental activists say that the world superpower, the US, over the years, has caused a lot of damage to the environment bringing negative impact to our climate.

By leaving the Paris Climate Agreement, the US took one more decision against the world's fight to bring some resemblance to rapid climate change.

Here is a list, prepared by the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, to outline the role US has played in global climate change:

Largest contributor to climate change: The US is the largest historical contributor to climate change, responsible for 21 per cent of the current carbon stock in the atmosphere. It is currently the second largest polluter in the world, and has the highest per capita emissions.

Weak climate agreements: To accommodate the US' interests, countries have worked towards making climate agreements weak. The Kyoto Protocol had weak targets.

Likewise, to bring back the US under the UN climate framework, the Paris Agreement was made a voluntary, bottom-up decentralised regime with no emission reduction commitments for countries and no punitive measures if countries failed to meet their targets.

US climate commitments: Under its climate action plan, the US had pledged merely 26-28 per cent emission reduction below 2005 levels by 2025. On the 1990 baseline, the US will cut emissions by a mere 13-15 per cent by 2025 and 23-27 per cent by 2030.

In comparison, the EU-28 will reduce 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030. The pulling out of the Paris Agreement means that the US will not fulfill its already weak commitments.

Financial commitments in jeopardy: In its federal budget, the US has announced that there will be no further funding to IPCC and UNFCCC. It has also vowed not to fulfill its support commitment of USD 2 billion to the Green Climate Fund.

This would mean that funding to the GCF, meant to help developing countries to address climate change, would suffer tremendously.

US domestic measures: By adopting a slew of measures domestically which includes revoking its Clean Power Plan, Trump has made his agenda clear - unfettered expansion of domestic fossil fuel production and repealing anything that is against it.

OneIndia News