United States President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to withdraw from the ambitious Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a fulfilment of a campaign promise.
“I am immediately withdrawing from the unfair one-sided Paris climate accord,” Trump said before signing the executive order at an inauguration event at Washington's Capital One arena.
Notably Trump had withdrawn from the Paris Agreement immediately after his first inauguration in January 2017. Joe Biden reversed that decision later.
Trump also signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing America from the World Health Organisation, the second time in less than five years that the US has ordered to withdraw from the world body.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) came under intense criticism from Trump in 2020 for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which grew into a worldwide health crisis during the final year of his first term.
The Paris Agreement places unfair economic burdens on American workers, businesses, and taxpayers. It hampers the economic and national security of the United States while allowing the world's leading polluters such as China to continue to pollute, according to the Trump team.
Describing it as a one-sided agreement, Trump said the United States will not sabotage its own industries while China pollutes with impunity.
“China, I mean, look, they use a lot of dirty energy, but they produce a lot of energy and when that stuff goes up in the air, you know, it doesn't stay there,” he said.
“It's not like you got a wall. We love walls, don't we? Not like you have a wall around and it floats into the United States of America after three and a half to five and a half days. It floats across the oceans and it comes right over your neighbourhood and it falls into your neighbourhood. So, they all say we have to fight for cleaner air, but the other dirty air is dropping all over us, so what the hell are they talking about,” Trump said.
“Unless everybody does it, it just doesn't work. We had the cleanest air and the cleanest water that this country has ever had under the Trump administration, and we didn't do anything to stop jobs and stop production,” he added.
The executive order says that the United States Ambassador to the United Nations shall immediately submit formal written notification of its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The US will consider its withdrawal from the Agreement and any attendant obligations to be effective immediately upon this provision of notification.
“It is the policy of my Administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy. These agreements must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States,” the executive order says.
Observing that the US must grow its economy and maintain jobs for its citizens, the executive order said over decades, with the help of sensible policies that do not encumber private-sector activity, the United States has simultaneously grown its economy, raised worker wages, increased energy production, reduced air and water pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
The United States' successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries, it said.
“In recent years, the United States has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect our country's values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives.
“Moreover, these agreements steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people,” said the executive order. PTI LKJ
This is Trump's second attempt to withdraw the US from the WHO.
In July 2020, he sent a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus notifying him of the US intention to withdraw within a year. Trump accused the WHO at the time of helping China mislead the world about the spread of Covid-19.
But Trump was defeated in that year's election, and when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he reversed Trump's decision.
This time, Trump will still be in office when the withdrawal would go into effect.
The Executive Order also calls for establishing directorates and coordinating mechanisms within the National Security Council apparatus as he deems necessary and appropriate to safeguard public health and fortify biosecurity.
-- By Lalit K Jha Washington, DC
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