President Trump's announcement that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement reportedly threw a lot of people for a loop, even those who already anticipated that he would do so. Blasting News reported on the fallout from corporations, world leaders and others, but there are details within the Climate Agreement that had also already anticipated a Trump presidency in order to protect it. There is no question that the U.S. involvement in the agreement is symbolically very influential, and therefore, President Trump's withdrawal was intended to make a lasting impact.
President Obama vs. congressional obstruction
But the conditions of the agreement, Article 28 says that the earliest withdraw date is November 4, 2020 and until then, the U.S. would still have to submit to certain requirements which, under a "weaponized" right-wing presidency, may not be enforceable. The Blasting News article refers to Trump's Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who, in a recent interview, said that the agreement was destroying jobs and attempted to argue that it was not made by the United States but by former President Barack Obama.
When the Obama administration was negotiating the agreement, it was reported that there was certain language that had to be changed in order for the President to get around Congress.
Due to Congress being led by the majority Republican Party -- who had been obstructing the President since the first year of his first term -- there was no indication that they would support the agreement. At the time, Congress was so dysfunctional that the President had to take these steps to enter the accord, along with other actions that would be crippled by Congress.
Two terms to withdraw from agreement
Nikki Haley also acknowledged this, but she did so in such a way as to discredit the agreement as invalid. This puts Obama's legacy into a broader context of what President Trump has been able to do with his executive orders. Due to the congressional dysfunction throughout both of Obama's terms, in order for him to be able to pass any kind of legislation, President Obama had to sign many executive orders that could easily be dismantled by another President.
Christiana Figueres -- who was among the first to author the agreement -- told Quartz that the U.S. could officially begin the withdrawal process on November 5, 2019, and that from that point forward, it would take a year to complete.
In November 2016, Dr. Oliver Geden, the head of the EU division for Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik for Deutsches Institut fur Internationale Politik und Sicherheit in Berlin (SWP) -- a think tank that analyzes foreign policy issues for Germany's federal government and parliament -- was able to confirm the withdrawal process with me via Twitter. Dr. Geden has published articles related to emissions and climate change for various media outlets, including the Guardian.
But, this is the reason why President Trump has been able to take apart the former administration's legacy one executive order at a time. Nonetheless, when it comes to the Paris Climate Agreement, its been said that if Donald Trump only serves one term then there is no way that the U.S. will be able to officially pull out of the agreement. In that case it would be up to the next President to complete the process, and only another term for Donald Trump would guarantee a complete withdrawal.
