President Donald Trump will sign an executive order withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, according to a newly issued two-page memo. This reprises his decision to depart that international agreement back in 2020.
President Joe Biden, on his first day in office in 2021, signed an executive order rejoining that agreement. In accordance with the agreement, the Biden Administration sent along to the United Nations its goals to reduce U.S. economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 61 percent to 66 percent below 2005 levels by 2035. That goal will doubtlessly be nullified by Trump's new executive orders.
Does it matter that the U.S. will withdraw from the agreement again? After all, the Paris Agreement has not been notably successful in achieving its goals. In the nine years since its adoption, it has failed to stem the increase in global greenhouse gas concentrations and the relentless rise of global average temperatures.
