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The Pros And Cons Of The Paris Climate Agreement

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Introduction

On the 1st of June 2017 Donald J. Trump declared the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. Only one year prior to that, on the 22nd of April 2016, Barack Obama signed the accord, agreeing to an intensification of actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future. (http://bigpicture.unfccc.int/#content-the-paris-agreemen)
The idea of an international accord was first implemented in November 2014, when the President of the United States, Barack Obama and the president of China, Xi Jinping, announced a bilateral agreement with the goal of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change (Paris climate agreement beacon of hope). On the 12th of December 2015, the …show more content…

In his statement, he defined the accord as a disadvantage for the US, created to give a financial advantage to other nations. Trump claimed, that economic restrictions would cause a $3 Trillion decrease in GDP and would command a cut in production. Furthermore, he stated that the accord would lock up vast amounts of energy reserves, like coal, that could have been used to “lift people out of poverty”. According to Trump these restrictions would cause a loss of 2.7 million jobs by …show more content…

In reality, a reduction in prices of renewable energy has made it accessible and profitable. In some places, it has become even cheaper to generate energy from wind and solar then from coal. Thus, “clean energy is attracting twice as many investments globally as fossil fuels. “(Bloomberg new energy finance) (Paris isn’t burning) The US leaving the Paris accord will eventually lead to a decrease in investments in the renewable energy sector in the US, damaging the sector and the US economy as a whole. (Trumps Paris Exit)
Furthermore, Trump supposes that a loss in GDP is inevitable when decreasing carbon emissions, but looking at the development of the last nine years this is clearly not the case. From 2008-2016 the US economy grew by 12% while the carbon emissions from energy generation decreased by 11%. This certainly shows that a decrease in carbon emissions does not demand a decrease of the economy. (Paris Isn’t

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