After ditching climate accord, it’s hard to know what will change
Jun 2, 2017, 7:02 AM | Updated: 10:04 am
President Trump is taking America out of the United Nations’ Paris Accord on climate change.
The treaty was never ratified by Congress. President Obama joined it by executive order. What is done by executive order can be undone by executive order.
But what exactly is being undone?
The Paris Accord is a treaty that sets, “common goals, commitments, and expectations.”
Here’s how former Secretary of State John Kerry put it to CBS News.
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“No country is required by this agreement to do anything except what that country decided to do for itself,” he said.
He, of course, thinks that dropping out is a big mistake.
But it’s hard to know just what will change.
The United States, for instance, had pledged to reduce its emissions by 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2025. There are a lot of people who believe we have a responsibility to do this and are livid that the president would break that promise. Ultimately, carrying out that promise would be up to corporations and to us as individuals. Though the president doesn’t think the government should force us to comply, there’s also no way the government can force anyone not to comply.
As far as I can tell, we can still drive as little as we want, we can brazenly install those ruthlessly efficient LED’s, we can defiantly pull the plug on the air conditioner.
The same goes for corporations. They can continue their pursuit of carbon neutrality no matter what the president says. Right or wrong, a lot of their customers just don’t feel good buying things that they think will melt the arctic tundra.
Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, promptly resigned as a presidential adviser and I’m guessing he is now more determined than ever to put oil companies out of business.
As he pointed out, it appears China will be sticking with the treaty and we might end up having to buy the advanced technology that they invent.
I think President Trump warned us about that. How did he put it?
“They are eating our lunch.”
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