Unsurprisingly, the answer to that question appears to be widespread condemnation.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, reacted swiftly by pulling out of the President’s business advisory council, tweeting: “Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
CEO’s from top companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Tesla, Microsoft and IBM have reacted to the announcement by reminding the world of the urgency of countering climate change. The CEO of GE, Jeff Immelt, said that “climate change is real” and “industry must now lead”.
Former Presidential candidate and worldwide climate change campaigner Al Gore said the decision was “reckless and indefensible”.
“It undermines America’s standing in the world and threatens to damage humanity’s ability to solve the climate crisis in time” Mr Gore said on Twitter. “But make no mistake, if President Trump won’t lead, the American people will. We are in the middle of a clean energy revolution that no single person or group can stop. President Trump’s decision is profoundly in conflict with what the majority of Americans want from our President, but no matter what he does, we will ensure our inevitable transition to a clean energy economy continues”.
Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton, writing on Twitter, branded Trump’s announcement a “historic mistake” that will leave American workers and their families behind.
Barack Obama, whose administration spent several years helping to negotiate the agreement, said that America had now joined “a small handful of nations that reject the future”. Obama said that over 190 countries will reap the benefits in jobs and opportunities and that US states, cities and businesses “will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got”.
Former Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders slammed Trump’s announcement as an “international disgrace” and an “abdication of American leadership”.
The Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, said he will sign an order committing New York to action under the Paris deal, warning of the “destructive power” of disasters such as Hurricane Sandy.
Many world leaders, including from France, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the UK have expressed disappointment while reiterating their commitment to the Paris Agreement.
The EU has now announced an alliance with China, calling climate change a ‘national security issue’ and the Paris Agreement a ‘historic achievement’ which is irreversible.
UN secretary general António Guterres said that it “is absolutely essential that the world implements the Paris agreement. If one country decides to leave a void, I can guarantee someone else will occupy it”.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around the world have responded Refugees International and ACLU warned that climate change would have serious impacts on disadvantaged communities. Within hours of the President’s decision, 20,000 members of the Sierra Club rang the White House directly. Executive Director of the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, said that the President has “made a historic mistake which our grandchildren will look back on with stunned dismay at how a world leader could be so divorced from reality and morality”.
Climate scientist and former EU adviser Professor John Schellnhuber said that Trump’s decision “will not substantially hamper global climate progress but it will hurt the American economy and society alike”. He added that “China and Europe have become world leaders on the path green development already and will strengthen their position if the US slips back. The Washington people around Trump fail to recognise that the climate wars are over, while the race for sustainable prosperity is on.”
The French climate ambassador during the negotiation of the Paris Agreement, Laurence Tubiana, said that “President Trump is putting his country on the wrong side of history”.
However, some commentators take the view that if the US had no actual intention of reducing its emissions, its commitment to the agreement would have been meaningless.
The US is now one of only three nations around the world to shun the Paris Agreement, the other two nations being Syria and Nicaragua. Even North Korea has signed it. The President’s announcement left the door open for some kind of ‘renegotiation’, even though this would be highly impractical, if not impossible.
“In order to fulfil my solemn duty to the United States and its citizens, the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, but begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris accords or a really entirely new transaction, on terms that are fair to the United States” said the President. However, it’s not clear what Trump actually means by this statement, since he neglected to clarify under what circumstances the US would consider re-entering the agreement.
France, Germany and Italy responded quickly to this statement by maintaining that the treaty could not be renegotiated.
“We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies” the statement by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
“Don’t be mistaken on climate; there is no plan B because there is no planet B” added Macron.
Many people around the world suspect that Trump is an avid climate change denier, based on his previous statements, but officials at The White House are refusing to clarify whether or not that remains the case.
“So I think the fact that the president in his speech today said he wants to come back and renegotiate a better deal for the United States and for the world I think speaks for itself” said one official.
“So is that a yes? It’s a yes or no question” a journalist responded instantly.
“Again, I think that speaks for itself” repeated the official.
“It doesn’t speak for itself” the journalist fired back, sounding rather annoyed. “So is that a yes? Does he believe human activity contributes to climate change?”
“I have not talked to the president about his personal views on whether – I was not with the president on his trip. I did not talk to the president about his personal views on what is contributing to climate change” the official replied. Another official appeared to imply that the President’s views on climate change were irrelevant, asking people to “stay on topic”.
Unsurprisingly, the withdrawal of the US from the agreement has been welcomed by Trump’s supporters, Steve Bannon has argued that the accord undermines an ‘America First’ approach and will harm American domestic coal production, while Scott Pruitt called it a ‘bad deal’ that should be discarded.
Meanwhile, the return of American coal industry is unrealistic. Tim Worsdell, writing in Forbes in 2016, eloquently explained why American coal jobs are going to continue disappearing.
First, clean coal is not going to help clean up the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and anyway, even if it did, natural gas is much better at doing this than coal.
Secondly, there is coal elsewhere in the world that is easier to extract than the stuff in Appalachia.
Third, the economics of coal just doesn’t stack up anymore. Fracking has helped to ensure that, but a much bigger reason is the fact that renewable energy costs are falling all the time, particularly with regard to solar and wind.
In short, coal is doomed.
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