Trump Announces US Withdrawal From Paris Climate Accord (reuters.com)

It's official. President Donald Trump announced today that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, following through on a pledge he made during the presidential campaign. Trump said the Paris agreement "front loads costs on American people. In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States," the president said. "We are getting out. But we will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that's fair. And if we can, that's great." Trump said that the United States will immediately "cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris accord" and what he said were "draconian financial" and other burdens imposed on the country by the accord.

This means that Elon Musk will leave Trump's Business Advisory Council. On Wednesday, Musk said he did "all he could to advise directly to Trump." (Update: Elon Musk is staying true to his words. Following the announcement, Musk tweeted, "Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.")

Twenty-five companies, including Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, Salesforce, Morgan Stanley, Intel signed on to a letter which was published on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal today arguing in favor of climate pact.

Update: Former president Barack Obama said the U.S. "joins a small handful of nations that reject the future."

Also, the New York Times points out that despite Trump's public statements, the U.S. can't officially leave the Paris climate agreement until 2020.

Comments

Re:Paris accord is a scam

[shmlco]

Nice link. The author of the article self-admittedly represents oil and gas companies and his sole link to the "devastating" costs of the agreement is a "report" issued by the Heritage Foundation.

Sigh.

Re:Does this matter?

[Misagon]

Which society are you talking about again?
Maybe there isn't consensus in your little town, but in the global society, there is. The world is bigger than "America" you know.

Re:Paris accord is a scam

[serviscope_minor]

Oh fuck off. Nuclear is almost the expensive way to produce power there is. What is this obsession with nuclear? It only makes sense when you're prepared for massive amounts of taxpayer subsidy.

THings have gone badly wrong with the managing of the nuclear industry. It's the safest form of power measured in deaths per TWh, but we're stuck with ageing 1970s tech, and building brand new 1970s tech. The mismanagement caused by misplaced fear means we're running the equivalent of nuclear Pintos in 2017.

Safety and density have a lot going for it. It doesn't matter as much for a country like the USA, but for smaller, denser countries, it's the only way to gain energy independence to any degree. Once you get to a country like the UK, renewables aren't going to cut it.

Re:Does this matter?

[TemporalBeing]

Fuck globalism. This is just another reclamation of American sovereignty.

You can spout off about globalist vs nationalist policies all you want, but even the hermit nation of North Korea understood this issue was important enough to show solidarity with the rest of the world on. When Kim Jong-un can work with other nations better than your President, that is a problem.

Has nothing to do with that. Kim Jong-un signed it because North Korea would *receive* money, not pay it out. He'd be a fool to turn down free money.

Honestly, whether a nation signs or not has very little to do with recognition of the issue as being important and more to do with where money is going. IIRC, if the US had joined it then like with the UN the US would have been paying out more money than any other country - which makes zero sense for the benefit. UN at least had some controls that gave the US significant power in its operations (Security Council, etc). The Paris Accord does not do that - money comes from rich countries and goes to the corrupt, poor countries and dictators like Kim Jong-un - many of whom will probably turn around and use it for weapons instead of its real purpose, or at least siphon off a lot of it via bribes and do that even if they show a facade of implementing what the money was for - it'll cost a lot more as a result too.

No, this isn't about solidarity. It's about money.

Re:Fuck off america

[grcumb]

If we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth.

Context matters, dipshit.