The US, once again, backs out of the Paris Agreement

Donald Trump has ordered his acting UN ambassador to submit a formal notice of withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords. This move follows a series of moves by Mr Trump to reverse many Biden-era climate initiatives. 

This has caused many other countries to question the world’s commitment towards global warming. Hashim Djojohadikusumo, an Indonesian politician, questions the need for other polluting countries, especially developing ones such as Indonesia, to cut down on emissions, given that the US is currently the second biggest polluter in the world and has a lot more financial resources to draw from for a transition into cleaner energy. Other countries have also decided to follow in the US footsteps, considering exiting the agreement in a similar fashion to the US. 

This isn’t the first time Mr Trump has removed the US from the treaty. 

Initially signed in 2015, Trump put forward a notice to remove the US from the agreement at the start of his first term in 2016. However, the complicated process meant that the exit was only formalised in 2020 and reversed by the Biden administration a year later. Climate officials indicate that the process for this second time may not be as complex, resulting in a faster release from the agreement. 

While many suggest that these decisions would have severe negative impacts on the world's climate moving forward, the effects of this decision will only manifest with time.

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