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“But is this the end of U.S. involvement in the Paris Agreement? That still depends entirely on the outcome of the election.”
A cautiously forward-looking piece in Ars Technica today explores how the United States could rejoin the Paris Agreement, the global climate change accord that Americans officially withdrew from on Wednesday, thanks to Donald Trump.
Trump vowed to leave the Paris Agreement in July 2017, claiming it would cost the economy $3 trillion in lost GDP and 6.5 million in lost industrial jobs — though both of those claims are false. If he wins reelection, his decision will stand, and the U.S. will be pretty much the only country in the world that won’t honor a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In other words: not good.
“But rejoining the agreement is much easier than quitting it,” writes Scott K. Johnson in Ars Technica. If Joe Biden wins, the structure of the Paris Agreement will allow its prodigal son to return within a month of submitting notice. Biden has pledged to submit that notice on day one of his presidency, which means the U.S. could rejoin as soon as February. He has proposed a $2 trillion plan to fight climate change that could help get the U.S. back on track to meet its Paris climate commitments, though the feasibility of this plan also depends on the outcome of the election: A Republican-controlled Senate, Johnson points out, is unlikely to pass any climate legislation.
