Climate Matters: U.S. withdraws from Paris Agreement for a second time
For a second time, the United States has abandoned its promise to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The reversal comes a year after President Trump signed an executive order to begin the process for U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. Trump also announced earlier this month that the country would be exiting the United Nations treaty underlying the accords, which were ratified by Congress in 1992 and signed by President George H.W. Bush.
Decades of international negotiations involving nearly two hundred parties, first outlined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), culminated in the Paris Accords in 2015, as countries worldwide sought ways to tackle climate change.
While the U.S. pulled out of the Paris Accords during Trump's first term, then rejoined under Biden, the decision to also withdraw from the UNFCCC is unprecedented and could be more difficult for future U.S. leaders to legally reverse.
Critics argue that the goals of the Paris Accords, like achieving net-zero emissions, are unrealistic and place an unnecessary financial burden on wealthy nations. Supporters counter that emissions are already decreasing and that these countries can afford to share the costs.
Missouri's emissions have been declining for decades and are now nearly 20% below their mid-2000s peak. However, Missouri is among the top 15 states for carbon dioxide emissions and burns more coal to generate electricity than any state except Texas.
The U.S. bears responsibility for more historical greenhouse gas emissions than any other country and accounts for 13% of global emissions each year. Yet, U.S. emissions peaked years ago and continue to decline, while China's emissions have surged to 32% of the global total as the country expands its industrial sector.
Twenty-three wealthy, developed nations have contributed to half of all greenhouse gas emissions over the past 175 years, despite comprising only 12% of the world's population. The remaining half comes from over 150 other countries.
