Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement is no surprise for those who have followed his Presidential campaign in 2016 during which he declared that he would cancel the accord.
True to his uninformed word, and also to the yokel-republican electorate that voted him to power, Trump has pulled out of the accord in the mistaken belief that doing so will be a “reassertion of American sovereignty”.
Over 200 countries are signatories to the Paris agreement, which came into force in November 2016, and mandates commitment from world leaders to limit the rise in global temperature to below 2 degrees. Trump’s stand is indicative of a view that, unfortunately, has come to acquire a lot of currency in the US: That global warming is a hoax, and studies substantiating this phenomenon are often sponsored by parties having ulterior motives contrary to the interest of the American worker.
It is in that vein that Trump, while exiting from the accord, took a jab at India and China saying that the accord was not tough enough on the two and that both countries were developing its coal capacities. Tough talk, but the President’s claims are unfounded. Among other things, the President ought to have considered that India is forging ahead with a momentous push on renewable energy (RE) generation, expanding its RE potential by 350 per cent over the last 13 years. At 57 GW, India’s RE capacities are at 18 per cent of the total installed capacities, and the ambitious target is to reach capacities of 175 GW of RE by 2022. In May, solar power tariff hit a never before low of Rs 2.44 per unit, cheaper compared to power procured from thermal power stations.
Slowly and steadily, India is moving towards cleaner, greener energy. One can’t say the same for the US, which historically has been a coal, oil and natural gas guzzler. With barely 4 per cent of the world’s population, it accounts for one-third of CO2 contributing to global warming. Another outcome of Trump’s withdrawal has been the ceding of a key area of dominance to China.
This is one opportunity that will be exploited by Chinese leaders and companies looking to expand their hold in the energy domain via massive investments. Incidentally, this coincides with the battle that China has been waging against the smog blanketing its major cities. In fact, Trump’s receding from the agreement is only a reaffirmation of what George Bush Sr famously declared at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 that “the American lifestyle is non-negotiable.”
(DNA INDIA)
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Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement is no surprise for those who have followed his Presidential campaign in 2016 during which he declared that he would cancel the accord.