The irony could not have been more bitter. On the eve of World Environment Day (5 June), the United States of America has emitted a direly distressing signal, and a phase of unsplendid isolation is dangerously real.
President Trump has announced that his country will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement in a move that is tantamount to defiance of a momentous international effort to address the danger of global warming.
The truism that has been overlooked in the process is that he cannot withdraw the US from the world, let alone the Earth to which the world belongs.
The pullout can be more damaging to the US than climate per se. In the immediate perspective, he has placed his country ~ the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases ~ in league with Syria and Nicaragua, which were till last Thursday the only countries not party to the Paris accord.
Both countries might now derive spurious satisfaction from the fact that they are not alone ~ Donald Trump is with them.
In attempting to link climate change to foreign policy, the President has almost immediately suffered a setback ~ world leaders have swiftly rejected Trump’s plea that the climate deal be re-negotiated “on terms that are fair to the United States”.
No, it can’t… and this message must be reverberating across the US over the weekend. Beyond that very obvious international snub must lie the still more critical signal from world leaders in terms of geopolitics ~ having withdrawn from the Paris accord on its own volition, America shall not dictate the terms of engagement on matters pertaining to global warming.
Trump’s rhetorical chant that “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” has almost immediately been countered by his predecessor ~ “The new administration has joined a small handful of nations that reject the future,” said Barack Obama in a rare statement.
“But US states, cities and businesses will step up efforts and do even more to lead the way, and help protect the one planet we’ve got”.
The fineprint of Mr Obama’s caveat is distinct enough ~ Trump’s initiative is as reckless as it is indefensible, and it now devolves on industry to take the lead. Rightly has it been remarked that Trump has posited his country on the wrong side of history.
If not the world at large, he has definitely defied the trends of environmental change… for which the Paris agreement of December 2015 was a watershed development.
The US withdrawal will not, however, derail global efforts to fight climate change. Cities, corporations, and investors have been moving in this direction for several years.
The US is likely to be the loser from its withdrawal, which will not substantially hamper global climate progress, but is bound to hit the economy and society.
The world looks forward to a measure of forward movement… even if Trump doesn’t.