Without US Leadership World Falls Behind on Climate Change Goals
President Trump could have used his moment at the United Nations to rally global leaders behind the goals in the Paris Climate Agreement, but he chose instead to rehash his old "anti-globalist" arguments against international cooperation and brag about imagined "accomplishments". And, as if to highlight his withdrawal from the Climate agreement, Trump praised America's abundance of "clean coal" while criticizing high OPEC oil prices. He refuses to acknowledge climate change and without America's leadership the world is falling further behind in meeting the goal of keeping global warming under the 1.5C cap that climate scientists have said is needed to prevent catastrophic results.
Guardian: "In the 2015 Paris climate pact, international leaders agreed to curb the global temperature rise to 2C above the era prior to mass industrialization, with an aspiration to limit this to 1.5C. The world has already warmed by around 1C over the past century, fueling sea level rises, heatwaves, storms and the decline of vulnerable ecosystems such as coral reefs"....
...“Even 1.5C is no picnic, really,” said Dr Tabea Lissner, head of adaption and vulnerability at Climate Analytics."
"Lissner said a world beyond 1.5C warming meant the Arctic would be ice-free in summer, around half of land-based creatures would be severely affected and deadly heatwaves would become far more common. “0.5C makes quite a big difference,” she said."
If we are to meet the 1.5C goal, global leaders would have to redouble their domestic efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and right now that seems doubtful according to a new UN report.
Guardian: "The world’s governments are “nowhere near on track” to meet their commitment to avoid global warming of more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial period, according to an author of a key UN report that will outline the dangers of breaching this limit."
"A massive, immediate transformation in the way the world’s population generates energy, uses transportation and grows food will be required to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C and the forthcoming analysis is set to lay bare how remote this possibility is."
President Trump's decision to withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement is having real world consequences, making it more difficult to rally the world to the challenge ahead. And some world leaders think that America's refusal to reduce greenhouse emissions should have consequences as well.
Guardian: "The UN general assembly has again pitted the world’s countries against Donald Trump when it comes to climate change, with the US president using his keynote speech to praise “clean coal”. Trump has vowed to exit the Paris accord, a stance that Emmanuel Macron, the French president, told the UN should be met with consequences such as a refusal by countries to enter into trade deals with the US."
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