Trump's Decision is Disappointing

US President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw from the formally binding Paris climate agreement, which was signed by 195 countries at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2015. The declared goal of the agreement is to limit global warming in the long term. ZEW president Professor Achim Wambach comments:

“The Paris agreement marked the first time the international community succeeded in calling for and making public the central players’ concrete plans for reducing their impact on the global climate. One of the decisive factors for the speedy ratification of the agreement were the early announcements from both Washington and Beijing that they were willing to sign the deal without further delay. The US government under Donald Trump has put the brakes on this potential new dynamic in global climate policy. Trump’s decision is also disappointing because the climate protection agreements made in Paris contain only few commitments that the participating countries have to meet. And now even this lowest common denominator is being called into question.

However, US climate policy is not only determined by President Trump. Companies who have discovered the market for environmentally friendly products, as well as broad sections of American society that support environmentally friendly measures, will not let this withdrawal from the agreement hold them back. Tesla is continuing to manufacture electric cars while the State of California is still planning to cover half of its electricity demand with renewable energy by 2030.

Europe should follow this development closely while keeping an eye on how other nations adapt their climate strategies. A ‘facilitative dialogue’ in 2018 will serve as the first interim assessment of the progress of the agreement, followed by a stocktake in 2023 to determine how successfully the nations of the world have put the Paris climate agreement into practice.”