Since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, the fight against climate change is over for your country. According to Donald Trump, climate change is an invention of the Chinese to gain competitiveness and that is why it is clear that the US will no longer lead the Paris Agreement.
Trump has closed all the environmental planning that Barack Obama and the Government of China made together, leading the negotiations to close the Paris Agreement in 2015. However, despite Trump not helping in the fight against climate change, China and Europe are willing to press ahead to lead the battle.
Environmental programs canceled by Trump
The programs that were in place before the Trump administration annulled them sought to enable the US to meet the objectives set when the Paris Agreement was signed. Among these objectives is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 26% and 28% by 2025 compared to 2005. The European Commissioner for Climate Action, Miguel Arias Cañete, has recognized that, with Trump's executive order, the US is left without the "main tools" to meet those goals.
In the fight against climate change, we can no longer count on the support of the United States. However, China and Europe will continue to look ahead. Both China and Europe will not change their determination, objectives, and policy on climate change, but will continue with the planned efforts to improve climate quality. It is interesting to note that some countries, such as those in the the European Union and China, are firmly committed to continuing to lead the Paris Agreement and to considering how the efforts of The US can affect the global climate.
China and Europe efforts
Since 2013, Brussels and Beijing have stalled a dialogue on energy and climate change that they have now reactivated in order to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. This dialogue is intended to increase cooperation in energy transport networks, increase technological innovation, renewable energies and energy efficiency. According to Cañete, climate change will play a key role at the annual summit between the EU and China to be held in June in Brussels.
China and the EU also set targets for cuts in the Paris Agreement, like the nearly 200 signatory countries. The reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be applied from 2020 and will be voluntary. That is, each state sets its own goals. China's contribution to reducing emissions is very small if we compare it with the effort sought by the European Union. Beijing's argument is that they are not among the group of Western countries that triggered the problem of climate change after decades of expelling CO2. The commitment that the Chinese have is to be able to reach the maximum peak of emissions in 2030 and from there begin to reduce them. This is part of an effort that also includes the European Union and its climate ambition.
According to experts, China's emissions will peak before 2030 due to its increasingly phased-out use of coal and increased adoption of renewable energy. In this context, it is important to remember that after Trump's victory, China will lead the Paris Agreement and will work hard to deliver on its climate promises.
The commitment of the European Union
The European Union has the highest climate goal of all international efforts since the US abandoned the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. Europe aims reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in 2030 from 1990 levels. Although within the EU there are tensions now that the distribution between the countries of the efforts and the instruments to achieve the global objective is being negotiated. Sweden, Germany and France, according to a recent Carbon Market Watch report, are pushing for ambitious development of climate policies. While another block, whose visible head is Poland, row in the opposite direction.
Between China, the US and Europe accumulate half of the greenhouse gas emissions of the entire planet. That is why without the effort and help of the United States, about 15% of global emissions would continue to be emitted and with this, it would be quite difficult to meet the Paris objective: to reduce greenhouse gases so that the temperature increase by the end of the century does not exceed 2 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels. It is imperative that the role of the United States in this global effort, since their absence can seriously affect the expected results.
