Economy better, planet safe, if U.S. withdraws from Paris agreement

Environmental groups are predicting trouble for the planet now that the U.S. is formally withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement but an energy analyst says the economy will benefit and the planet will be just fine.

Reacting to the news, the Sierra Club’s executive director called President Donald Trump “the worst president in history” regarding the earth’s climate, and clean air and water, and predicted that withdrawing will be seen as a “historic error.”

"Had we gone forward with a number of the regulations that were imposed by the previous administration to reduce greenhouse gases,” counters Heritage Foundation analyst Nicolas Loris, “those policies would have artificially driven up the cost of energy, which have negative ripple effects throughout the economy.”

Environmental groups celebrated in 2016 when the Obama administration added the U.S. to the pledge, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but critics have called the signing a feel-good measure.

President Trump announced in 2017 the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and Monday, November 4, marked the first date to do so according to the agreement.  

The process, which began this week under Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, does not become official for one year.

Even if the developed countries meet their targets in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, Loris insists it would not make any meaningful impact on global temperatures.

"So, both from an economic energy and a climate perspective,” he says, “this is a move in the right direction."