COMMENT
President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change is a callous dismissal of the plight of the world in short-sighted favour of US fossil fuel interests – and he's unrepentant
about that.
But America has always been self-serving and reluctant when it comes to multinational deals. Ever since the American revolution, successive administrations have preferred an isolationist stance above giving any form of power away to others; trade is the only sector in which the US is a willing party to global deals, and even then it tries to hold the whip-hand.
So while becoming a signatory to the Paris Agreement was a welcome anomaly, it was always likely to be subject to the whims of change in government.
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For many Americans, the fact the US is now the only country in the world which will not be a party to the landmark agreement is something to celebrate rather than commiserate; Trump wins voters with his appeals to putting "America First" because to a large extent American interest stops at their borders. The rest of the world can go hang, if it "makes America great again".
Fortunately this is not a sentiment shared much by other nations. Even China, Russia, and India, all critical of some aspects of the agreement, have so far stuck to the script of an all-embracing pact – though there are fears a US withdrawal will cause China to re-litigate the "rich vs poor" emissions argument to reduce its own commitments (as a supposedly "poorer" country).
On the other hand, the UK, Canada, France and Mexico, amongst others, have strengthened their targets by moving to cut all coal-fired power to zero by 2030, in stark contrast to Trump's broad pledge to ramp up coal and other fossil-fuel-powered generation.