US President Donald Trump is still undecided, but most probably, he would pull out of the Paris climate agreement. If that is finalized, it would be the fulfillment of his campaign promise but, would disappoint those who are fighting to protect the environment and reduce Global warming for a better future. It will also be a setback for the corporate world that wants to explore new opportunities to promote non-fossil based fuels.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and a member of a White House manufacturing jobs advisory board, has already made his intentions clear – he has tweeted that if the President goes out of the Paris accord, then he will have no other option but to dissociate himself from the administration.
The hesitation
New Zealand Herald reports that officials have kept their fingers crossed because President Donald Trump loves to keep people guessing and could change his decision at the last minute as he has done on several occasions in the last.
Officials agree that if the US does exit from the paris climate accord, it could have severe global ramifications and could give rise to doubts about America’s commitment to curbing global warming. It would also act as a stumbling block to pursue goals of a clean environment that will be free from ill effects of global warming which can be a major threat to the coral reefs and the vast ice sheets among others.
It may be recalled that only two countries did not sign the 2015 accord.
The Paris climate agreement was seen as a significant achievement for the then President Barack Obama, and the countries who did not sign were Nicaragua and Syria. If the United States withdraws from the accord today, it will harm the image of the country.
The future scenario
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Ivanka Trump, the President's adviser and daughter, want him to remain in the Paris climate accord but the president has informed via Twitter that he would announce his decision in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday.
America is already branded as the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and if the targets of a reduction in carbon gas emissions are to be met, it could lead to problems for a certain section of businesses and affect manufacturing jobs, especially in the Midwest and other regions. These regions are in the coal belt and had extended support to Donald Trump in last year's election.
Hence they would feel cheated.
Fossil fuels are the main contributors to global warming and in the interest of the world as a whole, the best option is to switch over to alternate forms of energy that do not give rise to global warming. There is a section of people who fear the loss of jobs if fossil fuels like coal and petroleum are stopped. They need to realize that embracing alternate energy will benefit in the long run because those will throw up new avenues of employment. The bottom line is to accept the fact that the era of fossil fuels is on the way out.
