When Donald Trump announced to the world that he would be taking the United States out of the Paris Deal, the assumption was that he would actually do that. But, it seems that things haven’t been going entirely to plan based on what was seen at the Bonn summit. The negotiators in charge of sealing an agreement did not seem to be making the dramatic withdrawal he promised.
The Paris Climate Agreement (Paris Deal) was signed in 2015 and laid down goals that signatories should implement into their own national policies with regards to tackling climate change. For a number of reasons, these policies did not appeal to the President of the United States and so he decided to withdrawn his country from the agreement.
Judith Garber, the U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Environmental and Scientific Affairs attended the Bonn summit. During her time there she told other delegates that the United States does not want to completely exclude the possibility of being involved in the global fight against climate change.
Indeed, she said that the nation wishes to continue to be engaged with other countries around the world in order to help move towards a cleaner future. She proceeded by reeling off a list of actions that the United States is undertaking in order to further the battle against climate change.
However, she tempered her positive speech by reminded the cohort that President Trump’s views on the Paris Agreement have no changed and that his position is entrenched. Nevertheless, she indicated that while he wants to withdraw from the deal as soon as he can, there is nothing stopping him from joining back up again in the future if terms that are more favourable to the American public can be agreed upon.
The general consensus by the time Garber had finished was that it may well be the case that re-joining won’t be necessary. This could be the case because the United States might not ever leave to begin with.
It was noticed by onlookers that Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Deal was undermined somewhat by his choice of methods as to how to execute his decision. He could have declared the original entry into the deal to be invalid because Obama did not allow Congress to be part of the decision. This would have allowed the President to withdraw straight away.
What President Trump has done instead has been to go down the official withdrawal route. This process will take over three years and won’t actually be triggered until the day after the next presidential election in the United States. This won’t be until 2020. So, the United States looks like it is going to be locked into this deal for, at least, another six years.
During this time, Trump will continue to send delegates to meetings. A State Department official said that this is in order to “ensure a level playing field that benefits and protects U.S. interests.”
