The United States Officially Withdraws from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change

The United States announced today that the country is officially withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change. America is the first country in the world to withdraw from the agreement. The agreement was crafted in 2015, 6 countries are yet to ratify after 189 countries have already ratified.

The agreement’s goal is for this century to keep the global temperature rise below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C.

In 2017, President Trump said that he would be pulling America from the agreement which sparked much outrage and criticism. One person who outwardly criticized the President’s decision was Natalie Mahowlad, an engineering professor at Cornell University. She said, “Having the U.S. pull out of Paris is likely to reduce to mitigate, and therefore increase the number of people who are put into a life-or-death situation because of the impacts of climate change: this is clear from the science.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a statement to the Daily Caller and he said, “We will continue to work with our global partners to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Just as we have in the past, the United States will continue to research, innovate, and grow our economy while reducing emissions and extending a helping hand to our friends and partners around the globe.”

Some are happy to see the United States leaving this deal. Katie Tubb, senior political analyst for the Heritage Foundation, said, “I’m not sure what Paris actually accomplishes… No matter what you think about global warming, and the nature of it, the pace of it, you have to take these growing economies seriously, and help them and I just didn’t see Paris getting that that end, in any efficient or constructive manner.”

If the United States does ever want to come back, another President could get them back into the deal if they wanted to. However, leaving-even if only for a few months-would warrant a penalty for having left.

Sources: Daily Caller, BBC; Photo-NBC News