President Trump is pulling us out of the Paris Climate Agreement. In quantifying the damage that carbon pollution does to society, Trump views America as an island in itself — and we all know what climate change is doing to the islands. The 32-page document provides a framework for global climate action, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, support to developing countries, as well as transparent reporting and strengthening of climate goals. Here`s what he wants to do: Today, President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. The agreement, which all but two countries (Syria and Nicaragua) support, is a broad framework designed to push nations to prevent catastrophic climate change. The Paris Agreement is the first universal and legally binding global climate agreement adopted at the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) in December 2015. The initial commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol was until 2012. This year, delegates at COP18 in Doha, Qatar, agreed to extend the agreement until 2020 (excluding some developed countries that had withdrawn). They also reaffirmed their 2011 commitment at COP17 in Durban, South Africa, to create a new comprehensive climate agreement by 2015 that would commit all major emitters not covered by the Kyoto Protocol – such as China, India and the United States – to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The new treaty – the future Paris Agreement – is expected to completely replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2020. However, the Paris Agreement entered into force earlier than planned, in November 2016. Previous commitments could raise global temperatures by up to 2.7°C, but the agreement sets out a roadmap to accelerate progress. Under the Paris Agreement, the richest countries like the United States are expected to send $100 billion a year in aid to the poorest countries by 2020. And this amount will increase over time. Like the other provisions of the agreement, this is not an absolute mandate. President Obama was able to formally include the United States in the international agreement through executive action, as he did not impose any new legal obligations on the country. The U.S. already has a number of tools on its books, under laws already passed by Congress to reduce carbon pollution. The country formally acceded to the agreement in September 2016 after submitting its proposal for participation.

The Paris Agreement could not enter into force until at least 55 countries representing at least 55% of global emissions had officially acceded to it. This happened on October 5, 2016 and the agreement entered into force 30 days later, on November 4, 2016. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding emission reduction targets (as well as sanctions for non-compliance) only for developed countries, the Paris Agreement requires all countries – rich, poor, developed and developed – to do their part and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, greater flexibility is built into the Paris Agreement: it does not include language in the commitments that countries should make, countries can voluntarily set their emission targets (NDCs) and countries are not penalized if they do not meet the proposed targets. What the Paris Agreement requires, however, is monitoring, reporting, and reassessing countries` individual and collective goals over time in order to bring the world closer to the broader goals of the agreement. And the agreement stipulates that countries must announce their next set of targets every five years – unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed at that target but did not contain a specific requirement to achieve it. It will also allow the parties to progressively improve their contributions to the fight against climate change in order to achieve the long-term objectives of the agreement. The Paris Agreement provides a sustainable framework that will guide global efforts in the coming decades. The aim is to increase countries` climate ambitions over time. To this end, the agreement provides for two review processes, each of which goes through a five-year cycle. For the first time in history, the agreement brings all the nations of the world together in a single agreement to fight climate change. The agreement requires rich countries to meet a funding commitment of $100 billion per year beyond 2020 and use that number as a “lower limit" for additional support agreed until 2025.

Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and prevent heat from radiating from the Earth`s surface into space, creating the so-called greenhouse effect. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading international scientific body dealing with this issue, the concentration of these heat storage gases has increased significantly since pre-industrial times to levels not seen in at least 800,000 years. .