When the Paris Climate Agreement was signed into effect in 2015, it was a monumental step toward international cooperation in reducing global emissions. Under the agreement, countries that account for 97 percent of global emissions— including industrialized and emerging economies— vowed to work together to tackle global climate change.
Scientists agree that man-made emissions of greenhouse gasses are contributing to warming the earth’s climate considerably and will damage both the environment and the economy. Rising global temperatures, changes in precipitation, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and greater flooding will have clear economic consequences by the year 2050. To avoid this economic and environmental disaster, all nations need to work together to cut global emissions drastically.
The United States’ discontinued participation could threaten the planet’s environmental and economic well-being. As President Trump lays out plans to do away with most of the Obama Administration’s policy on climate change, it is difficult to ascertain future United States involvement.
In recent years, progress has been made toward addressing the impending crisis that is global climate change, but there is still more that leader’s around the world need to understand about the ever-growing amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. As the discussion concerning the United States’ participation in the Paris Climate Agreement grows under the President it is important to be reminded why the United States should remain in the agreement.
Fortunately, the rules currently in effect for the Paris climate agreement require that the U.S. remain in the agreement four years, but the long-term future of the PCA remains unknown.
Photo by Daniel Lerps/Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0
Caitlin Phillips is a freelance writer based out of Athens, Georgia.