The Complicated Relationship Between the U.S. and the Paris Climate Agreement by Niamh Stallings

The Complicated Relationship Between the U.S. and the Paris Climate Agreement

By Niamh Stallings, Masters in International Comparative Law

One of the most significant challenges facing the international community in the twenty-first century is global warming. Climate change poses a major threat to the survival of our planet, and its impacts are becoming increasingly more apparent: our summers are experiencing more rainfall, polar ice caps are disappearing, and forest fires frequent arid regions such as Australia and California. These are only a few of the effects of climate change.

In 2015, the United Nations established the Paris Agreement to respond to the global threat of climate change by reducing carbon emissions and fossil fuels. The Agreement came into force in 2016 and has since been ratified by 196 countries. The Paris Agreement is an international non-binding agreement of climate change action. By signing up to the Agreement, parties are promising to do their part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Each country sets its own goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and they are encouraged to be as ambitious as possible. State Parties are afforded flexibility in how they wish to achieve individual climate change goals. The Agreement has a robust system for reporting and collecting targets of the State Parties and requires Parties to declare their targets every five years.

In September 2016, former U.S. President Barack Obama used his executive power to sign the Paris Agreement at the end of his presidential term of office, as he was unable to secure congressional approval because his political party was not the majority in either branch of Congress. This unfortunate fact made it relatively easy for his successor, Donald Trump, to withdraw from the Agreement as it was never ratified by Congress. The U.S. withdrawal from the Agreement meant that it was no longer bound to its promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the Trump administration subsequently tampered with or dismantled over 100 national environmental laws. For example, the Trump administration altered how costs of pollution to human health and safety are conducted under the Clean Air Act which weakened government authority to issue clean air and climate change rules.

The Impact of U.S. Withdrawal

The Paris Agreement fundamentally confirms the direction of international cooperation in responding to climate change. The U.S. withdrawal from the Agreement shocked international governments and environmental non-governmental organisations. Trump’s denial of climate change tarnished the international reputation of the U.S. as a key player in global environmental policy Obama’s administration had committed the US to the Agreement and promised to abide by its terms. Within a year, the U.S. government under the Trump administration turned its back on the Agreement, losing international credibility and standing.

The U.S. is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. Remarkably, 10 per cent of the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions is methane. Methane greatly affects the environment in that it warms up the atmosphere. This is a fundamental problem because higher temperatures lead to worse types of disasters such as storms, heat waves, floods and droughts. A warmer climate creates an atmosphere that can gather, retain and drop more water, changing weather patterns in a way that wet regions become wetter and dry regions become dryer. The U.S. climate policy has a strong hold over global climate governance. The failure of the U.S. to adequately regulate greenhouse gases will have devastating effects at a global level. Therefore, combatting climate change must be a global effort.

Policy Page 62 Another consequence of the U.S. withdrawal from the Agreement is a decrease in funding towards fighting climate change. According to the financial budget of the U.S. in 2018, the U.S. slashed its budget for international climate activities by $10.9 billion. This meant taking away all of the funding from the Clean Power Plan, a set of regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in power plants. It also meant defunding climate change research. The U.S. also stopped contributing to the U.N.’s Green Climate Fund when it had previously promised to give $3 billion. This further illustrates the lack of commitment on the part of the U.S. towards combatting climate change.

The Prodigal Son

In January 2021, following the inauguration of Joe Biden, the U.S. re-joined the Paris Agreement. President Biden has affirmed that tackling the climate crisis will be of his top priorities as president. He has promised an enforcement mechanism to ensure net-zero emissions by 2050 and has designed a $2 trillion clean energy plan. The President has also signed an executive order demanding all agencies to review any actions that are inconsistent with his climate change policies.

Biden has signed new eco-friendly executive orders, some of which have revoked executive orders of Trump. In particular, Biden has abandoned Trump’s orders that weakened the requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as those that promoted offshore drilling. He has also placed a moratorium on the leasing of fossil fuels for government resources, ordered agencies to stop any government aid that incentivises fossil fuel activities and directed federal agencies to acquire electric and carbon-free cars.

Conclusion

Global warming is an ongoing crisis that threatens the survival of humans, animals, plants and the planet in general. Global warming has caused climates all around the world to change. This climate change has led to more frequent and intense droughts, storms and heat waves which can directly harm people and animals. Global warming is mostly caused by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil. The burning of fossil fuels then creates greenhouse gasses such as CO2 which then gets trapped in the atmosphere. Therefore, these activities, amongst others which enable the growth of global warming, should be regulated. States must take steps to reduce greenhouse gasses as fast as possible. The Paris Agreement created State responsibility for mitigating the effects of climate change. It provides that States have the obligation to create ambitious goals and measures to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses.

Since the start of 2021, Joe Biden has made it clear that fighting climate change will be a major priority of the U.S. After re-joining the U.S. to the Paris Agreement, Biden has committed the country to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Biden aims to achieve net zero emissions through clean energy policy incentives, energy efficiency projects and public works programmes. It remains to be seen whether Biden’s successor will follow through on the current plans of the U.S. to fight climate change. This is why President Biden should pursue climate change policies through legislative action during the first two years of his term, when both houses of Congress are represented by a majority of his political party. Legislative action should include but not be limited to: decreasing carbon pollution; combatting forest destruction and helping transition developing countries to clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy. To conclude, it is essential that Biden gets climate change bills passed because climate change is an urgent issue and must be regulated to reduce its devasting effects.

“Every drop in the ocean counts.” -Yoko Ono