U.S. Announces its Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord

U.S. President Donald Trump announced yesterday that the United States would withdraw from participation in the Paris climate accord.

The Accord de Paris is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Representatives from 195 countries negotiated the agreement at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, adopting the Paris Accord by consensus on 12 December 2015.  As of June 2017, 148 UNFCCC members have ratified the agreement. Under the Paris Accord, each country determines its own contribution to mitigate global warming. There is no enforcement mechanism (other than public opinion) to force a country to set a specific target by a specific dated. 

In announcing that the United States would withdraw from the Paris agreement, Donald Trump said that the United States would seek to reopen negotiations, something immediately oppotsed by countries such as France, Germany, and Italy.

Three U.S. states have joined the United States Climate Alliance in response to the U.S. announcement, and another seven states are said to be in talks to join the group.

(mew)