When President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Paris accord, effectively ending the country’s leadership on combating climate change, the backlash from the rest of the world was both immediate and vociferous. The United States is the planet’s biggest economy, as well as its second-largest producer of greenhouse gases.
While Trump’s “climate exit” was more political grandstanding than substance—under the rules of the pact, countries are locked in until at least 2020—the move is another blow to America’s increasingly battered credibility. It also undermines the foundations of the 195-country agreement by signaling to other countries—emerging economies in particular—that their climate commitments are just as rescindable, if not essentially meaningless.