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U.S. and Climate Change

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April 25, 2017

What is the issue?

  • Kerala and Tamilnadu are facing the worst drought in the recent times.
  • Concurrently, there are several droughts in many other parts of the world, including Bolivia and several regions of Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Several recent extreme events such as wildfires, droughts, severe heat waves and cyclones in other places.
  • They have a clear signature of a changing climate, but in many cases these are aggravated by other institutional failures.

What is U.S’ stand?

  • U.S. is still the world’s second largest annual emitter of GHGs.
  • It has generated more than a quarter of the total anthropogenic GHGs in the atmosphere since 1850.
  • But the present U.S. government does not believe that anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) are responsible for climate change.
  • U.S. has not technically withdrawn from the Paris Agreement from but Trump’s recent decisions are reversals of of former U.S. President Obama’s policies to reduce and limit pollution and GHGs.

What are the effects of Trump’s actions?

  • Mr. Trump’s orders directed federal agencies to cancel or amend policies that might interfere with domestic energy production.
  • He also slashed research budgets for climate change.
  • They send a clear signal that the U.S. is no longer interested in curbing GHGs to stabilise the climate and neither is it keen to meet its Paris commitments.
  • It also demonstrates that allowing countries to write their own Nationally Determined Contributions continues to be a problem.
  • This might also be replicated in continued implementation of the agreement by successive governments within each country.

What should be done?

  • But this may not be a big step back if other countries persist with their efforts and if renewables continue to get more affordable as they have recently.
  • This move also provides elbow room for renewable energy businesses elsewhere to pick up the slack in interest within the U.S.
  • Global agreements are often tenuous and need support and pressure from other actors within and across countries who function at many levels.
  • Climate change requires vigilance and participation by both state and non-state actors.

 

Source: The Hindu

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